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CHILDREN'S STORIES 



AMERICAN PROGRESS 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 



Children's Stories in American History. 

One vol., i2mo, with 12 full-f age illustrations, $1.50 




p^^^^^ 



THE CLEARING — RUII.PING THE HOUSE. 



Children's Stories 



OF 



American Progress 



Henrietta Christian Wright 

AUTHOS OF M CHIUHtE*'»8TOWE«IMAMEBICAll IURDBY" 

Illustrated hy J. Steeple Davis 



Vic - ' r , 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1886 



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Copyright, 1886, by 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



TROWS 

PRINTING AND DOOKB1NOINO COMPANY, 

NEW YORK. 



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/i 

CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

THE BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT, . • 1 

CHAPTER II. 
The Barbary Pirates, 



CHAPTER III. 
The Purchase of Louisiana, . 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE TO THE ^ 

Pacific Ocean, 

CHAPTER V. 

. i°4 
The First Steamboat, . 

CHAPTER VI. 

. 121 
The Battle of Tippecanoe, . 



\ 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VII. 

PAGE 

The War of 1812, 130 

CHAPTER VIII. 
The Purchase of Florida, 145 

CHAPTER IX. 
The Story of Slavery, . . . . . .159 

CHAPTER X. 
The Story of the Railroad, 179 

CHAPTER XI. 
Indian Troubles in Florida, 199 

CHAPTER XII. 
The Story of the Telegraph, 209 

CHAPTER XIII. 
The Annexation of Texas, 229 

CHAPTER XIV. 
The Mexican War, 248 



CONTENTS. vii 

CHAPTER XV. 

PAGE 

Settlement of the Northwest Boundary, . . 268 

CHAPTER XVI. 
The Discovery of Gold, 279 

CHAPTER XVII. 
The Rebellion, 299 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
The South after the War, 328 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



The Clearing — Building the House, . Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 

Area, Settlement, and Territorial Divisions — 1800, 1 
Decatur and the Barbary Pirates, . . . .42 

Pioneers in the West, 86 

The First Steamboat, 104 

Abigail and Rebecca Bates Repulsing the British, 130 

Fugitive Slaves, 160 

An Early Railroad, 180 

The Telegraph, 210 

At Palo Alto, 248 

Washing for Gold, 280 

A Truce between Pickets, 300 



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CHAPTER I. 

THE BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 

When the United States first became a nation, 
they included only that portion of the country 
lying along the Atlantic coast between Maine 
and Florida, and almost entirely east of the 
Ohio. These States, called sometimes the "old 
thirteen," made up the United States of America. 

All the great West beyond was quite unknown 
to most of the people, and the few travellers 
who had seen its vast prairies and great rivers, 
and lofty mountain chains, were regarded with 
almost as much respect and admiration as had 
been given to the early voyagers across the At- 
lantic. 

For in the early days of the country a jour- 
ney across the Alleghany Mountains was con- 
sidered far more perilous than a voyage across 
the ocean, and the unknown dangers that lay in 



2 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 

the vast, unexplored regions beyond, seemed to 
the traveller much more to be dreaded than the 
uncertainties of a sea-voyage. But long before 
the Revolution, the West was visited by hunt- 
ers and trappers who went in search of game. 
These bold men living in the western parts of 
the colonies and trading continually with the 
Indians, soon became familiar with the idea of 
a great hunting-ground beyond the mountains 
where they might find abundance of game, and 
live the wild and roving lives which their hardy 
natures delighted in. They listened eagerly to 
the Indians' stories about this land with its 
beautiful forests and magnificent rivers, and they 
were not discouraged by the knowledge that the 
way to it lay through an unknown wilderness, 
where they would be in constant peril from sav- 
age beasts and treacherous red men. So fearless 
of danger were they, that they generally went 
alone on their expeditions, or at most in parties 
of twos and threes, and carrying with them 
only their ammunition and a few articles with 
which they might wish to trade with the In- 
dians, they would start on their journey through 



BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 3 

the forest, following an Indian trail or a buffalo- 
path, or sometimes dropping down the Monon- 
gahela in a birch-bark canoe to the Ohio, this 
last way being so long and difficult that it 
needed, according to the Indians, " two pad- 
dles, two warriors, and three moons" to accom- 
plish it. 

But to the hunter no danger was too great 
or way too difficult to keep him from trying to 
find those famous hunting-grounds, where the 
deer and other game were so plentiful that the 
Indians could only signify their numbers by 
pointing to the stars in the sky or the leaves 
of the forest. 

Sometimes the Indians were friendly to the 
whites who thus reached their distant homes, 
and sometimes they were not, but as a general 
thing the hunter who built his lonely hut far in 
the depths of the forest or upon the borders of 
some solitary stream, had to be constantly upon 
the watch for the red-skinned foe who would 
come lurking around the little lodge with the 
hope of pouncing upon the white man unawares 
and scalping him or taking him prisoner. But 



4 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 

these hunters were as wily and watchful as their 
dark neighbors. Their life upon the frontier had 
made them as excellent woodsmen as were the 
Indians themselves ; they knew all the craft of 
the red man, and could follow a trail through 
the pathless woods, find out the hiding-place of 
a lurking enemy, track the panther and bear to 
their secret dens, and aim with a skill so unerr- 
ing, that the Indian soon learned he was well- 
matched in his white neighbor, and began to re- 
spect him accordingly. 

For there is nothing that the Indians admire 
so much as skill and courage. Many a time the 
life of a hunter was spared by the admiring red 
men who would not condemn to death one who 
was their equal in bravery, and to show no fear 
of death was a sure way to their favor. 

Often, if the prisoner were young or in the 
prime of life, he would be adopted by the tribe, 
sometimes being treated with all the respect 
that they gave to their chiefs. 

The ceremony that was performed when a 
white man was adopted into a tribe was very 
curious. First, all the hair was pulled out by 



BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 5 

the roots excepting a small lock called the 
scalp-lock, which was left growing, so that if 
the man were taken prisoner he could have his 
scalp taken off the more easily ; this lock was 
always dressed with feathers and quills in true 
Indian fashion ; then the captive was taken to 
the river and thoroughly washed and scrubbed 
so that the white blood might be washed out of 
him, and finally, his face was painted and he was 
led to the council-house, where the chief deliver- 
ed a long speech in which he spoke of the honor 
he had received by becoming an Indian, and 
mentioned the duties he would be expected to 
perform. 

The prisoner was then looked upon as a 
member of the tribe, and treated in every way 
as if he were an Indian, except that at first he 
was watched very closely, in order that he might 
not escape. 

Sometimes the adopted captive was quite 
willing to remain with the tribe and spend the 
rest of his life with them, but often he would 
rather go back to his own people, or to his own 
free life in the woods, and then his whole soul 



6 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 

would be set on trying to find means to escape. 
This was always very difficult, as even if he did 
succeed in getting away from the Indian village 
or camp, he would have to spend days and nights 
in rapid travel, hiding his trail so that it could 
not be discovered by his followers, and often 
going for days without food, since the sound of 
his gun or the smoke from his fire would surely 
have brought the enemy upon him. And if he 
were once retaken there was no hope for him. 
He was only taken back to die under the most 
horrible tortures ; as soon as he was brought 
again into camp the whole tribe would gather 
around him, and first fastening him to a stake, 
would dance and yell in the most hideous man- 
ner, striking him with cords and switches until he 
was quite exhausted, when he would be placed 
under guard until the next day ; then in the 
morning he was again brought out and placed 
between two long- rows of Indians armed with 
sticks, rods, whips and knives ; this was called 
running the gauntlet ; the prisoner would start 
from the end of the line and run down between 
the rows of Indians, who would strike and wound 



BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 7 

him, trying if possible to kill him as he ran, and 
even if he got through this trial alive, it was 
only to suffer the most horrible death that his 
captors could invent. 

All these cruelties made the white men very 
wary of their dark foes, for they knew that cap- 
tivity meant, as a general thing, death by torture. 

Yet, in spite of all the dangers and hardships, 
traveller after traveller crossed the mountains, 
spending months and years in the new country, 
whose delightful climate, brilliant skies, fertile 
soil, grand forests and majestic rivers, seemed 
to well repay them for any risk they ran from 
hostile Indians. Sometimes a hunter or trader 
was allowed to build his little home quite near 
an Indian village and carry on his business un- 
disturbed, for the Indian was always glad to get 
the articles which his white neighbor offered him 
in trade. 

For a knife, or a string of beads, the trader 
would receive in return very valuable and costly 
furs, which would bring large sums in the colon- 
ies or England, and by this means the Indians 
learned the use of hatchets, axes, steel-traps and 



8 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 

rifles, and could soon handle them as skilfully 
as the whites. 

Thus it was that the West first became known 
to the people in the eastern part of the country, 
and gradually all the paths across the moun- 
tains were learned, and the colonists grew famil- 
iar with the descriptions of the country beyond, 
and many of them began to look westward, and 
wonder how it would seem to live in that new 
land where homes could be had for the making, 
and where fish and game were so abundant that 
no one could ever be in need. For in those days 
the colonists who lived back from the sea-shore, 
and away from the cities that were fast growing 
up, disliked the idea of having neighbors too 
near them, and many a time an old hunter would 
leave the place where he had lived many years, 
and go and seek a new home if he heard that 
strangers were coming to settle near him. 

About the time that the West began to be 
somewhat known, there was living on the banks 
of the Yadkin River, in North Carolina, a boy 
about sixteen years of age, whose name was 
Daniel Boone. He was a very silent and thought- 



BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 



ful lad, with gentle manners and a brave, kind 
heart, and although always willing to perform 
his share of the duties that were so necessary in 
frontier life, he was never so happy as when 
alone in the woods, studying the habits of the 
wild animals that made their homes there, learn- 
ing their cries, and becoming familiar with their 
haunts. 

From his earliest years he was used to going 
off on his lonely expeditions, and so brave and 
cautious was he that he seemed in no more dan- 
ger than he would have been at home with his 
friends. 

Dressed in a suit of homespun, which had 
been woven by his mother, he would start on his 
lonely tramps, sometimes unaccompanied even 
by a dog, and wander through the forest in new 
directions, until the whole place around became 
perfectly familiar to him, and he knew its differ- 
ent features as well as he knew the faces of his 
friends. And indeed, the vast forest, with its 
numerous inhabitants, seemed to him as friendly 
a place as could be found anywhere, and he loved 
its mighty trees and mossy spaces and shady 



10 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 

paths, and the wild, sweet voices of the winds 
that swept through the tree-tops, and the plaint- 
ive songs of the forest-birds that flew through 
the air around his head or nestled in the sun- 
flecked branches above. 

Very early he learned to imitate the call of 
the different beasts and birds, thus luring them 
out of their secret haunts, until they came within 
range of his unerring gun. He could gobble 
like a turkey and draw a whole flock of these 
birds near him ; he would bleat like a fawn, until 
he saw the soft eyes of the anxious doe looking 
at him through the leaves ; he would screech and 
bring the owls flying around him, and often, far 
away, the wolves would howl back in answer to 
his cry. He was also a perfect woodsman, and 
could follow a trail with the unerring instinct of 
an Indian ; a bent twig, a dent in the moss, the 
dew brushed from a glossy leaf, being the signs 
by which he traced the deer, the panther, and 
the bear, or the more subtle red man. 

Besides being so skilful with his rifle, he could 
throw a tomahawk with the readiness of an In- 
dian, and could run and jump and wrestle as well 



BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. II 

as the Indian lads whom he sometimes saw at 
their games. 

Life on the frontier was a very active and ex- 
citing thing, and a boy had need of a trained 
eye, a strong arm and a fleet foot, as well as a 
brave heart, if he was not to be left behind his 
companions in their daily pursuits. And then 
the happiness and comfort of the family depend- 
ed upon the ability of the fathers and brothers 
to supply food and clothing, for in those little 
homes, so far away from cities and towns, every- 
thing that was necessary had to be provided by 
the people themselves. 

Their houses were made of rough logs, the 
corn was ground between two stones, the fish 
were caught in the stream that ran by the door, 
and the meat was procured in the forest ; the 
women spun cloth out of flax and wool, and the 
men tanned deer and other skins and made of 
them leather hunting-shirts, and shoes for the 
children. Perhaps there would be a little log- 
hut built for a school-house, and here the boys 
and girls would be taught for a few weeks in the 
year by some adventurous traveller who had 



12 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 

left the coast for awhile to study the life of the 
frontiersmen. 

In such a school-house as this Daniel Boone 
learned all that he knew of books. But his life 
in the woods had taught him courage, perse- 
verance, keen habits of observation, and calm- 
ness in the midst of danger, and so he really 
grew to manhood with a better education than 
many boys have who spend years and years at 
school. 

There, in his quiet home in North Carolina, 
where few sounds from the outside world crept 
in, it was natural that the affairs of men should 
seem less interesting to him than the keen pleas- 
ures of a life spent in the woods, and the news 
from the east which came to him from time to 
time, of the growth of the cities, and the build- 
ing of ships, and the increase of trade, seemed 
hardly worth listening to compared with the news 
from the West, that lay beyond the great moun- 
tains toward which his eyes continually turned. 

And as story after story was brought by hunt- 
ers and traders and friendly Indians, Boone re- 
solved that he too would make a journey into 



BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 1 3 

the West, and see what good fortune was waiting- 
there for him. 

But still the years passed away, and he re- 
mained in his pleasant home on the banks of the 
Yadkin, and he had married and had a home and 
children of his own before the time really came 
for him to undertake his trip across the moun- 
tains, and even then it might have been put off 
for some time longer, had not new settlers be- 
gun to come into North Carolina and build their 
log-houses near the streams and forests, that 
he had for so many years looked upon as be- 
longing almost entirely to himself. 

The presence of these strangers made him 
dissatisfied and unhappy, for although he was of 
a kind and affectionate disposition, he was very 
fond of solitude, and preferred living quite away 
from any neighbors ; for to him the forest, with 
its many sights and sounds, never seemed lone- 
ly, and the clear streams by which he wandered 
and the lovely wild flowers that grew on their 
borders, and the lofty mountains in the distance, 
all seemed like the faces of dear friends whom 
he had known all his life. So he was not sorry 



14 . BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 

when a chance came for him to leave the little 
home where he had spent so many happy years, 
but which now seemed spoiled by the arrival of 
these unwelcome new-comers. 

The country beyond the Alleghanies had 
grown so familiar to him from the many sto- 
ries he had heard of it, that the thought of going 
there was almost like going amongst friends, and 
he had no doubt that he should be perfectly 
happy and content there. 

So it was decided that he and six other men 
should leave North Carolina, and cross the 
mountains, and enter the region that is now 
known as Kentucky, in search of new homes. 
One of the party, John Finley, had already visit- 
ed the country, and had spent hour after hour 
in telling Boone and his companions of its beauty 
and fertility, to say nothing of the game, which 
was so abundant that the Indians from the north 
and the south were continually roaming through 
its forests, looking upon them as a common 
hunting-ground ; for this region did not seem to 
be inhabited by any special tribe, but was rather 
a meeting-place for friend and foe alike. 



BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 1 5 

So all things were made ready, strong cloth- 
ing supplied, and powder and bullets provided, 
and, one beautiful morning in May the little 
party left their homes, taking with them as their 
last remembrance, the pretty picture of the sun- 
lit river-banks, and the forest fresh in its glory of 
new leaves. They were a month crossing the 
mountains, stopping now and then for a day or 
two in some lonely river-valley, where the herds 
of buffalo, feeding in the cane-brake or browsing 
in the meadows, looked at them wonderingly, 
for their route was one quite unknown to Indi- 
ans or white men, and these animals had prob- 
ably never seen a human being before or heard 
the sound of a gun, for they were very tame and 
showed no signs of fear when the travellers came 
near them. 

They crossed the chain now known as the 
Cumberland Mountains, and early in June came 
in sight of Kentucky, a Shawanese word signify- 
ing " at the head of the river." 

Their first view of the country well repaid them 
for all their trouble, for, as they looked from the 
mountain height over the wide region spread 



l6 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 

out before them, they felt that it was far more 
beautiful than they had ever imagined, and did 
not doubt that here they would be able to make 
comfortable homes for their families, and live 
useful and happy lives. 

They built a little hut on the banks of a small 
stream, and here they lived seven months, pass- 
ing the summer and autumn months in fishing, 
hunting, and roving through the forest. 

A beautiful meadow spread out on all sides 
around their cabin, and during the warm months 
it bloomed continually with wild flowers, while 
the forest beyond also was rich with blossoms 
and fruits. All around were salt-springs, to which 
the animals came to obtain the salt, and while 
Boone and his companions were safe in their hut, 
before which a blazing camp-fire was alwavs 
burning, they knew that from the forest near, 
the bears and panthers and deer were prowling 
around in the darkness, their cries sometimes 
joined by the wolves farther away, and the 
screech-owls up in the shadows of the trees. 

It was a life full of danger, but they loved it, 
and had no thought of fear. With comfortable 



BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 1 7 

clothing, abundant food, and plenty of ammuni- 
tion, they lived there happily enough, gaining in 
their tramps much valuable information about 
the country and deciding upon the best places 
for settlement. 

All the summer and autumn passed without 
their seeingf a sion of an Indian. But one morn- 
ingf in December, while Boone and one of his 
friends were following a buffalo-path through a 
cane-brake, they were suddenly surprised and 
captured by a large body of Indians. They 
were many miles from their little camp, and 
escape was impossible, and so for seven days 
they had to follow their captors in their journey 
toward the west. 

During this time Boone attracted a great 
deal of admiration from the Indians, because of 
his strong handsome figure, and the skill with 
which he aimed at the buffalo and deer, for 
they knew nothing of the use of the rifle, depend- 
ing entirely upon their arrows for the supply of 
food. 

Boone allowed them to think that he felt 
very friendly toward them, let them examine his 



1 8 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 

picturesque dress, which was made of beautifully 
dressed deer-skin, very fine and soft, with the 
seams ornamented with fringes, and handle his 
hunting-knife, powder-horn, bullet-pouch and 
rifle, knowing well the Indians' fondness for the 
curious, and their awe of anything they could 
not understand. 

But he and his companions well knew that, 
friendly as the Indians appeared, they were only 
leading them to captivity or death, and they de- 
termined to seize the first chance for escape. 
But it was not until the seventh night after their 
capture that the longed-for opportunity came. 
The Indians had had a great feast, and were all 
sleeping soundly, when at midnight the two 
white men crept silently from the camp, their 
moccasined feet not even breaking a twig or 
rustling a leaf, and disappearing quickly in the 
forest, started back for their little home in the 
meadows. 

They reached it after a long and wearisome 
tramp, but found it quite deserted ; for in their 
absence their companions had either been killed 
or captured by the Indians, or perished in the 



BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 19 

wilderness. Boone and his companion searched 
everywhere for a trace of them, but no clew was 
ever found, and to this day their fate is a mys- 
tery. 

But the two who were left were not dis- 
couraged ; they found another place still more 
hidden and secure, and stayed there contentedly 
for some weeks, until they were surprised one 
day by the visit of two friends from Carolina, one 
of them a brother of Boone, who had set out 
in search of their distant friends ; they brought 
with them powder and shot, thus making it pos- 
sible for the adventurers to remain in the wilder- 
ness some time longer. 

At that time the trouble with the Indians 
was so great that the people in the east began 
to think of sending soldiers to the west, and 
driving the Indians quite away from their lands. 

All along the frontier of ^Virginia the Indi- 
ans, under the great chief, Logan, whose family 
had been cruelly killed by the whites, rose in a 
body arid began to resist the approach of white 
settlers. 

Logan was one of the most celebrated of 



20 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 

the Indian chiefs, and he had always been on 
such good terms with the settlers that he was 
spoken of by the tribe as " Logan, the friend of 
the white men." 

His home was near what is now known as 
the city of Wheeling, and living so close to the 
frontier had given him a chance to study his 
white neighbors, and to learn that, like his own 
people, there were bad as well as good among 
them. Logan's influence was very powerful 
with the other tribes, and the settlers were very 
glad to think that in any trouble that might 
arise they could count this great chief as their 
friend. But one day, when he was absent from 
his home, some treacherous whites came lurk- 
ing around and seizing the opportunity, murder- 
ed his entire family, and when Logan returned, 
in place of the happy home he had left, he found 
only a desolate house and the dead bodies of 
his children. At this cruel wrong all his friend- 
ship for the settlers turned to deadly hatred, 
and seizing his tomahawk, he vowed never to 
rest until he had avenged his murdered children. 

All along the frontier the Indians prepared 



BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 21 

for war ; the tomahawk was sent from tribe to 
tribe, and the Shawanese, Delawares, Mingos 
and Wyandots, joined together in their deter- 
mination to punish the whites for their cruelty 
and bad faith. 

And then began the most terrible time that 
the settlers had ever known. Settlement after 
settlement was attacked, house after house 
burned, and family after family utterly destroyed. 
In places where several families were living near 
together, there was some chance of escape, but 
in those little homes, built far away in the edges 
of a deep forest, or by the side of some quiet 
stream, there was no hope. Band after band of 
painted Indians would come around, shrieking 
out their terrible war-cries and brandishing their 
tomahawks, and the place was never left until 
the little cabin was burned to the ground, the 
family tomahawked, the harvest trampled down, 
and the cattle driven off to provide food for the 
savage enemy. 

Sometimes the white children, if healthy and 
strong, were carried off and adopted by the 
tribes, and if this happened, the chances were 



22 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 

that the little captives would never look again 
upon the friendly face of a white man, for they 
were often carried to the far west and made to 
grow up as Indians, the girls marrying some 
Indian chief, and the boys learning those cruel 
and savage practices that the red man delights 
in. 

The news of these Indian outrages soon 
reached the eastern parts of Virginia, and it was 
felt that something must be done at once for the 
relief of the settlers. Soldiers were sent out, 
and the whites tried to persuade Logan to leave 
the Indian conspiracy and give up his plan of 
vengeance. To this proposal the great chief 
replied in a speech that touchingly reminded the 
settlers of his former fidelity and trust. He 
stood up in the council-meeting, surrounded by 
his braves and the white men who had been 
sent to make peace, and answered them thus : 
" I ask any white man to say if ever he entered 
Logan's cabin hungry and I gave him not meat; 
if ever he came cold and naked and I gave him 
not clothing ; during the last Indian war Logan 
remained in his camp and tried to make peace. 



BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 23 

I had even thought to live with you, but a white 
man last spring, in cool blood, cut off all the 
relatives of Logan, sparing not even the women 
and children. There runs not a drop of my blood 
in the veins of any human creature. This called 
for revenge. I have killed many : I have glutted 
my vengeance. For the sake of my country I 
rejoice at the thought of peace. Yet do not 
think I fear ; Logan never felt fear. He would 
not turn his head to save his life. Who is there 
to mourn for Logan ? " The whites felt hum- 
bled and ashamed as they listened to this noble 
reply, and it was greatly owing to the nobility 
of this chief, who had been so cruelly wronged, 
that the war was made less terrible than it 
might have been otherwise. 

But before it was over with, there were cruel- 
ties practised by the white soldiers that were 
as brutal as any ever committed by savage In- 
dians. 

Hundreds of soldiers marched up and down 
through the fertile valleys where the Indians 
had made their homes, ravaging the country as 
if they had been wild beasts instead of men ; the 



24 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 

villages were left in ashes ; the little clusters of 
wigwams on the banks of the Scioto only served 
as beacon-lights to warn the unhappy natives 
that the white men were on their trail ; the fields 
of corn, with their bright leaves and glossy tas- 
sels glistening in the sunshine, and with their 
soil thick with the footprints of the children who 
had played there, were all cut down by the 
swords of the men who thought only of driving 
the Indians away from their lands, and leaving 
their homes desolate. 

And when the soldier had finished his work, 
there remained only miles of smoking heaps of 
charred wood, acres and acres of ruined crops, 
blackened trunks and scorched leaves of once 
beautiful forest-oaks, and scattered withered, 
wild flowers, stained with the blood of the chil- 
dren who had loved to gather them. 

Daniel Boone had been chosen by the Gov- 
ernor of Virginia, as a man familiar with Indian 
warfare, to protect the frontiers, and as it was 
his custom at all times to treat the Indians as if 
they were human beings, and as he already had 
their confidence and respect, and was, besides, 



BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 2$ 

well skilled in all their practices, his mission was 
an easy one compared with what it would have 
been had he been a different man. But when 
the Indians found that the whites meant to carry 
the war into their own country, and that they 
could be just as savage and cruel as they them- 
selves, they began to be disheartened, and offered 
to make peace. 

The great Chief Comstock arranged for a 
council to be held, and in a speech of great power 
pictured the former happy life of the Indian be- 
fore the white man had come to drive him from 
his lands, and said that they had been driven to 
the war by the unjust and merciless conduct of 
the settlers. The governor said he would con- 
sent to peace if the Indians would give up all the 
lands south of the Ohio, and to this Comstock 
and the other chiefs agreed, and thus Ken- 
tucky came to be considered a part of Virginia. 

After the war was over Daniel Boone returned 
home, still cherishing the idea of moving his 
family to the beautiful region of Kentucky. But 
he remained only a short time, soon going back 
to the new country and beginning a fort on the 



26 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 

Kentucky River which he intended to make a 
permanent place of settlement. The place was 
called Boonesborough and here, after a while, 
came the family of Daniel Boone, and several 
other families that had decided to try their fort- 
unes in the new country. 

At first there was little trouble with the Indi- 
ans, but as just at this time the Revolution broke 
out, the English officers in the valley of the Ohio 
furnished the Indians with arms and ammunition, 
and encouraged them in every way to annoy the 
Kentucky settlers, who of course sympathized 
with the colonists. And so it happened that the 
people at Boonesborough were never free from 
the fear that at any time they might be attacked 
by murderous red men who were only too glad 
to eive the aid which Great Britain asked of 
them in her struggle with the colonies. 

But the fort was strong and well defended, 
and Boone was a brave and watchful command- 
er, as the Indians well knew, and come as silent- 
ly as they might through the forest, it was im- 
possible to surprise the fort, for the keen eyes of 
Boone knew every Indian sign, as well as the 



BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 2*] 

paths through the wilderness, and the brave pio- 
neer could not be taken off his guard. But while 
Boone and thirty of the other men were away 
from the fort for a few weeks, obtaining salt from 
the springs that lay nearly a hundred miles north 
of Boonesborough, the Indians started for the 
little settlement, thinking it would be a good 
chance to surprise and capture it. 

Boone and his companions were in high 
spirits, and had sent three men back to the fort 
to carry the good tidings that they were all well 
and very successful in obtaining the salt they 
had so much needed. 

The Indians had been unusually quiet, and 
during the whole time they had been there they 
had not seen a sign of their enemy. But Boone 
well knew that this might only mean that they 
were getting ready for a more desperate attack 
than usual, and consequently he was more than 
ever on his guard, and determined to get back 
to Boonesborough as soon as possible, for al- 
though he had seen no signs of Indians at the 
springs, he did not doubt that they were well 
aware of his presence there. 



28 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 

One morning, when he was out very early in 
search of game for the little camp, he wandered 
farther away than usual, and just as he was 
thinking of turning back, his quick ears caught 
the sound of footsteps, and looking ahead he saw 
a large band of Indians directly in front of him ; 
he tried to escape, but although he was as fleet 
as a deer he found it impossible, and was capt- 
ured by the swift Indian runners who started 
in pursuit of him. 

He was then told that if he would surrender 
his little party to the warriors, their lives would 
be spared, and although it grieved him to do 
this, he could think of nothing better, as he knew 
if he refused they would be all put to death by 
horrible torture, whereas if he consented, the In- 
dians would keep their promise and spare their 
lives, and then there might come a chance of 
escape. 

The Indians would not have given this 
promise to any white man but Boone, but 
they had always found him brave and hon- 
orable, and knew that many times he had 
been their friend, and had always tried to pre- 



BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 2Q 

vent the whites from taking away their lands 
unjustly. 

The men who were waiting Boone's return at 
the springs were surprised to see him come ac- 
companied by this band of warriors, and would 
have rushed to his rescue had he not at some 
distance away made signs to them not to attempt 
battle. When he told them he had surrendered 
to the Indians, they agreed that it was the wisest 
thing he could do, and so allowed themselves to 
be taken captive. 

It turned out that this was the very best thing 
that could have happened for the people at 
Boonesborough, for the Indians were so delight- 
ed with their capture of Boone and his compan- 
ions that they gave up the idea of going on to 
the fort, and turned back to their own camp on 
the Indian River, and so Boonesborough was 
saved for the present. 

From the Indians' camp the captives were 
taken to the British commander at Detroit, who 
received all of them as prisoners, excepting 
Boone, whom the Indians would not part with. 
He was taken back to the camp at Chillicothe, 



30 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 

and adopted into the family of Blackfish, one of 
the greatest of the Shawanese chiefs. The war- 
riors were delighted to receive into the tribe a 
man so celebrated as Boone, for he was known 
everywhere west of the Alleghanies as a man 
honorable in purpose, fearless in danger, and, 
above all, as skilful in hunting as any warrior in 
the land. 

Blackfish treated his adopted son very kindly, 
and after Boone had gone through the usual 
ceremony of having his hair pulled out, and his 
face painted, he was allowed to do pretty much 
as he pleased, except that when he started out 
on a hunting expedition, he was only given so 
many balls for his rifle as would enable him to 
bring home the necessary supply of game, as 
the Indians feared if he were well supplied with 
ammunition he would try to escape. 

Boone might have been very happy here 
if he had had no troublesome thoughts to an- 
noy him, for Chillicothe was beautifully situ- 
ated on the banks of a lovely stream, whose 
clear waters were filled with rainbow-tinted 
trout, while all around stretched a magnificent 



BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 3 1 

forest, abounding - in choicest game. He easily- 
gained the good will of the Indians by taking 
part in all their sports and games of skill, always 
taking care to let them surpass him, and thus 
avoid their jealousy, and as he pretended he 
was very contented and happy, they soon ceased 
to watch him so closely, and gave him much 
more liberty. He had made them believe that 
he could not understand the Shawanese speech, 
and was thus able to listen to all their plans of 
war, and soon found out that they were as much 
determined as ever on an attack upon Boones- 
borough. 

This made him decide to take the first chance 
of escape, and at the risk of his own life, try 
and warn the settlers of their danger. And so 
one morning, when he went out very early to 
take his usual hunt, he started at once for the 
fort, over a hundred and fifty miles away, pro- 
vided only with a few pieces of dried meat and 
a little ammunition, which he had saved up by 
cutting his rifle-balls in two. He knew that the 
Indians would be after him in a short time, and 
looked back anxiously as the rising sun shone 



32 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 

through the tree-tops, and the loud notes of the 
forest-birds proclaimed the full day ; but his stout 
heart did not fail, and knowing - as much of wood- 
craft as his pursuers and being as wily and watch- 
ful as they, he pressed on day after day through 
underbrush and swamps, and over swollen 
streams, until he came to the Ohio, which he 
crossed in an old canoe he found drifting among 
the bushes, and so reached the Kentucky shore, 
when, for the first time during his journey, he 
built a fire and shot some birds for food. 
And so he reached Boonesborough in safety, 
though the keenest and swiftest Indian runners 
were upon his trail, and warned the fort of its 
danger. He found that his wife and children 
had gone back to North Carolina, thinking 
that he had been killed by the Indians, but he 
had no time to grieve over this, as the fort needed 
instant defense. After his preparations were 
ready, he selected a band of the bravest men 
and started out to meet the savages, who, he 
supposed, were on their way to the settlement. 
He succeeded in driving one war-party back 
in a panic, and then returned to the fort, having 



BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 33 

learned that a large party of Indians was on its 
way to Boonesborough, commanded by a French 
officer. 

The fort was threatened by an army of ten 
to one, but Boone resolved not to surrender, but 
fight it out, knowing well that if they were capt- 
ured, the general, who was acting for the British 
commander at Detroit, could not hinder the 
Indians from subjecting them to the most horri- 
ble tortures. 

But the general offered to make terms and 
go away in peace, if the settlers would send a 
party outside the fort to meet him and some of 
the chiefs, and to this Boone consented, taking 
care, however, to select the strongest and bravest 
of his men, and cautioning them to keep a strict 
watch for the red- skins. 

Peace was offered on condition that the 
settlers would acknowledge that the King of 
England was the lawful sovereign of all the 
American colonies, and that they would not take 
up arms against him, and furthermore, that they 
would immediately leave Kentucky and go back 
again to the east. 



34 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 

Boone had so few men in the garrison that 
he was obliged to accept these terms, knowing 
that if he refused, the British would send army- 
after army from Detroit to join with the Indians 
against the little band ; and so the conference 
came to an end. 

But Blackfish had no mind to let his enemies 
off so easily, and resolved to get them into his 
power if possible. Accordingly he made a very 
powerful speech, declaring how glad he was that 
the affair had ended so peaceably, and express- 
ing his admiration for Boone and his party, and 
then said that it was the custom at such times 
for the two armies to shake hands in token of 
friendship, and proposed that two Indians should 
shake hands with one white man at the same 
time. 

Boone immediately saw through the trick, 
and when the savages came up and clasped the 
hands of the whites, they found them ready for 
them. Boone and his companions were so 
strong, and the men inside the fort sent their 
balls with such unerring aim, that the plan of 
Blackfish to capture the whites came to nothing, 



BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 35 

and they all succeeded in getting- back into the 
fort. 

And then began one of the fiercest battles 
that ever waged in Kentucky. For nine days 
the fort was attacked by the army outside, and 
the Indians, led by the superior wisdom of a 
white officer, felt sure of success ; but the garri- 
son held out bravely, killing and wounding so 
many of the enemy that finally they were glad 
to retreat. 

This was one of the most important events 
in the early history of Kentucky, for, after this, 
the Indians never again attacked Boonesbor- 
ough, believing it was impossible for them to 
take it ; whereas, if they had taken it, it would 
have caused such alarm and dismay among the 
other settlers, that it is probable the settlement 
of Kentucky would have been delayed many 
years. 

As it was, one band of pioneers after another 
crossed the mountains and found homes among- 
its fertile meadows and beautiful valleys, though 
the Indians still kept the war-path and the 
English did all they could to harass and dis- 



36 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 

tress them. But the Kentuckians remained 
true to the colonies, and when the Revolution 
left America free, and independent of England, 
the Indians were very glad to make peace, 
knowing well that although England was very- 
willing to give them guns and ammunition to 
carry on war against the colonies, she would 
leave them to take care of themselves when 
once her power was broken. 

So the principal tribes made treaties of 
peace with the whites, who dreaded the Indians 
far less when their English allies no longer sup- 
plied them with ammunition and rifles. 

Immediately after the Revolution, settlers 
began to enter Kentucky by hundreds, and 
thriving towns and villages grew up all over. 
There was still some trouble with the Indians, 
who would come in parties of two and three and 
surprise unprotected and remote little settle- 
ments, and sometimes roving bands, who still 
looked upon Kentucky as their rightful hunting- 
grounds, would make wild raids through the 
country, stealing horses and massacring the 
whites. 



BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 2>7 

But in many cases these outrages were the 
result of the treatment which they themselves 
had received from the settlers, for some of the 
whites were as savage and revengeful as ever 
the red men could be. 

But as the years passed, times grew better, 
and peace settled down upon the land that had 
known so many fierce and bloody battles. The 
Indians slowly retreated farther west, and the 
settlers had time to cultivate the fertile valleys 
and draw wealth from the rivers and forests, 
and after a time Kentucky grew to be such an 
important colony that it was decided it would 
be best to separate it from Virginia, and make it 
a State by itself, for the capital of Virginia was 
too far away for the Kentuckians to travel thither 
without great loss of time. 

So they asked to be made a separate State 
with the privilege of making their own laws ; 
this was granted by Virginia, and in 1792 Ken- 
tucky was admitted into the Union, being the 
fifteenth State of the Union, Vermont having 
been admitted the year before. 

Daniel Boone did not remain in the new 



38 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 

State very long. Some trouble arose about his 
claims to the land he occupied, and he moved 
farther away to the north ; but not being satisfied 
here, he started on a longer journey still, and 
crossed the Mississippi into what is now known 
as the State of Missouri, hoping to find in this 
remote region a home as beautiful as the one 
he had lost. 

Here he lived until his death, passing his 
time in hunting and trapping, respected and 
loved by white man and Indian alike, and ever 
ready to lend his aid to the new settlers who 
came gradually into the country, attracted by 
the report of its beauty and richness. 

He died at the age of eighty-six, having 
lived a pure and noble life, and one rich in good 
deeds to his fellow-men. 

Twenty-five years afterward, the State of 
Kentucky removed his remains to Frankfort, 
where they were interred with great honors, in 
memory of his love and devotion to the beauti- 
ful State which, largely through his help, rose 
to be one of the most important parts of the 
Union. 



BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 39 

During the settlement of Kentucky, other 
parts of the country west of the Alleghanies 
also became slowly inhabited with pioneers 
from the east. 

Their story during the first years of western 
life was very much like that of the early history 
of Kentucky. There were fierce struggles with 
the Indians for the possession of the land, and 
many troubles with the British during the Rev- 
olution, but finally war and bloodshed almost 
entirely ceased, and the beautiful river-valleys 
once more knew peace and happiness as in the 
old days before the white man had ever come to 
bring trouble and dissatisfaction. 

Tennessee came into the Union in 1796, and 
Ohio in 1802, so that, with the opening of a new 
century, the United States consisted of seven- 
teen States, all rapidly increasing in wealth and 
prosperity, and the country beyond the moun- 
tains, that had once been regarded as only a wild 
hunting-ground for the Indians, had come to be 
looked upon as a land of promise where the 
discouraged settler from the east might take 
heart, and amid the pleasant valleys of the Ken- 



40 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 

tucky and Ohio, begin life anew, sure that their 
fair meadows and wide forests would yield him 
rich rewards for all his labor, and feeling that, 
through the gate of the mountains he had passed 
into a region of peace and comfort, where the 
future looked only bright and full of hope. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE BARBARY PIRATES. 



In the northern part of Africa, lying along 
the Mediterranean coast, are the Barbary States, 
which, in the early part of this century, were 
feared by all the nations of the world on account 
of their bold pirates who roved around the seas 
capturing foreign vessels and making slaves of 
their crews. 

These States were inhabited by Berbers, 
Moors, Arabs and Turks, all of them good 
Mohammedans, and all deeming it only right 
that they should rob and persecute any Chris- 
tians who might fall into their hands ; and for 
this many opportunities offered, for then, as now, 
the Mediterranean was the great water-way 
along which passed very nearly all the vessels 
trading between Europe and the East. 

Morocco, Algiers, and Tripoli were the prin- 



42 THE BARBARY PIRATES. 

cipal States, and not only did they allow this 
piracy, but they also demanded tribute, and 
every year the different nations sent certain 
sums to the governors of these countries to buy 
their promise not to interfere with their trade. 

But after the tribute had been paid, little heed 
was given to the promise, for the pirates always 
kept the seas as usual, and year after year 
Neapolitan, Venetian, French and English sea- 
men were captured by these lawless robbers, and 
either confined in dismal dungeons, or made to 
serve as slaves with other unfortunate captives. 

It very rarely happened that any prisoner 
escaped, for all the harbors were closely guarded, 
and constantly filled with Algerine and Tripoli- 
tan vessels on the alert for runaway slaves, and 
if the poor captive thought to cross the moun- 
tains and escape by land, he well knew that he 
would have to traverse miles and miles of un- 
known country, and perhaps at last fall a prey 
to wandering Arabs or the ferocious beasts of 
the desert. 

And so the only thing to do was to wait 
patiently until the news of his capture reached 




DECATUR AND THK BARBARY PIRATES. 



THE BARBARY PIRATES. 43 

hiTfe^away friends, and they sent money to 
buy his release. 

If they were very poor and could not do this, 
his chances of freedom were very small, and it 
was quite likely he would spend the rest of his 

life as a slave. 

The more powerful governments generally 
tried to redeem their own citizens, but even this 
was sometimes impossible without sending men- 
of-war, and demanding them at the cannon's 

mouth. 

The Barbary States possess a delightful cli- 
mate and fertile soil, and their rich valleys pro- 
duced all the tropical fruits in abundance. 

A little way back from the cities of the coast 
were the country-seats of the wealthy class, sit- 
uated in view of the mountains, and surrounded 
by beautiful groves and tasteful gardens. 

Here, amid fields of wheat and barley, and 
groves of date, olive, fig, lemon and other trees, 
could be seen the patient figure of the slave, 
working early and late in all times and seasons, 
and looking seaward with sad eyes, while he 
thought of his own home among the Italian 



44 THE BARBARY PIRATES. 

orange-groves, or, if he were from the north, 
reminded by the crimson petals of the peach and 
the white bloom of the cherry-trees how the 
spring looked among his native hills that he 
might never see again. 

For the Tripolitans and Algerines treated the 
slaves so cruelly, feeding them so poorly and 
punishing them so severely for any offence, that 
unless a man had a very strong constitution he 
could not long endure such hardships. 

One of their modes of punishment was the 
bastinado, which consisted in having the soles 
of the bare feet struck by a strong paddle, which 
was wielded with all the force that the slave- 
driver could command. Sometimes it happened 
that the slave-driver was himself a slave, and 
then he was generally kind to the poor fellows 
who had to endure this punishment, and would 
let them cover their feet with mats of straw, only 
taking care to make a great deal of noise while 
pounding the mats, and advising the culprit to 
cry loudly, so that the chief slave-driver would 
think he was being severely punished. But at 
other times this treatment was so severe that 



THE BARBARY PIRATES. 45 

the blood was forced through the upper part of 
the feet, and it often happened that a man would 
be lamed for life after it. 

Occasionally, if a prisoner were a man of any 
importance, he would be treated with some re- 
spect, confined in a comfortable room and not 
made to work, and once or twice, perhaps, in- 
vited to the house of some person in authority 
and treated as an honored guest. 

Such invitations were generally given at the 
times of the great yearly feasts, when the whole 
city was given up to pleasure, and the Moham- 
medan was obliged by his creed to show hospi- 
tality and charity to his enemies. 

At the great festival of Bairam which lasted 
from three to six days, it was the custom to in- 
vite such guests, who always realized their own 
good fortune all the more when they saw them- 
selves attended by their more unfortunate fellow- 
prisoners who had been reduced to the condition 
of slaves. 

The festival of Bairam, which was always pre- 
ceded by a fast of thirty days, was one of great 
magnificence. 



46 THE BARBARY PIRATES. 

The houses were always beautifully decorat- 
ed, the entire population of natives wore their rich- 
est and costliest robes, and the nobles vied with 
one another in the sumptuousness of their feasts. 
The palace was thrown open to visitors whom 
the Bashaw received in the magnificent audience- 
chamber, which was hung with rich tapestries, 
and furnished with divans and ottomans covered 
with beautifully embroidered scarlet cloth, and 
ornamented with fringes and tassels of gold and 
silver. 

Costly rugs were strewn over the marble 
floor, and placed under the throne, where the 
Bashaw sat surrounded by his family and his 
chief officers, all wearing their richest apparel, 
which was, in many cases, ornamented with gold 
and silver embroideries, and sparkling with 
jewels of immense value. 

The visitors were ushered into the audience- 
room by the officers of the court, who passed 
them on to the officers of the divan, who in turn 
presented them to the Bashaw. 

They were then seated to the right of the 
throne, and served with coffee and wine, which 



THE BARBARY PIRATES. 47 

were brought to them by Neapolitan slaves who 
knelt before the guests and offered the refresh- 
ments upon salvers of gold and silver. 

Before leave was taken, the visitors were 
sprinkled with attar of roses, and they said fare- 
well amid the clouds of incense which arose 
from the censers swung by the attending 
slaves. 

Then one house after another was visited, 
each host offering wines, coffee, tea and choice 
fruits and confectionery, and treating his guests 
in every way as if they were on the friendliest 
terms. 

It was very hard after such treatment to re- 
turn to the cheerless prison-chambers, where 
they knew many dreary hours must yet be pass- 
ed, and the Mohammedan feast-days were al- 
ways welcomed with joy by the poor captives 
whom the hard fortunes of war had doomed to 
such a weary life. 

The United States, like other Christian na- 
tions, suffered in many ways from the pirates of 
the Barbary States. 

Their seamen were made slaves, their offi- 



4 8 THE BARBARY PIRATES. 



cers were imprisoned, and their trade was al- 
most ruined by these robbers, who had no re- 
gard for the life or property of infidels, as they 
called all Christians. 

In vain tribute was paid and threats made, 
and promises demanded ; still the stars and stripes 
floating- from the mast of a ship only meant to 
the lawless pirates a chance of gaining money 
and slaves. The harbors of Algiers and Tripoli 
were alive with vessels whose only business was 
piracy, and it was a very common thing for the 
congregation in an American church to hear the 
minister read aloud from the pulpit the names 
of their friends who had been captured by the 
pirates, and the prices necessary for their ran- 



som. 



And as things grew worse and worse, the 
United States felt that it would be a disgrace to 
let them continue so any longer, and it was re- 
solved to make a bold stroke and put an end to 
the insults that were continually being offered 
to the American flae-. 

The navy of the United States was at that 
time very small, consisting only of six vessels ; 



THE BARBARY PIRATES. 49 

but four of these were sent to the Mediterranean 
to suppress the Barbary pirates. 

This was in the year 1801; the United States 
were still a young - nation and their flag was 
almost unknown in foreign seas. But that did 
not frighten the brave heart of the commander 
of the little fleet, who resolved to make the 
haughty Algerines and Tripolitans feel the 
weight of his country's displeasure. 

The fleet reached the Mediterranean safely 
and spent some months in cruising up and down, 
capturing some Tripolitan corsairs, and giving a 
safe passage through the Straits of Gibraltar 
to trading vessels. 

As the Bashaw of Tripoli had declared war 
against the United States, the Americans were 
ordered to seize as prizes all vessels and goods 
belonging to him and his subjects, and as this 
order was carried into effect whenever possible, 
the haughty Tripolitans learned what it was to 
be captured on the sea and deprived of their 
liberty. They were not, however, destined to re- 
ceive the cruel treatment they had given, for in 
every case the Americans treated their prisoners 



50 THE BARBARY PIRATES. 

with kindness, thus showing that while a nation 
might be brave and strong in the defence of its 
rights, it could still be merciful and generous to 
its enemies. 

But this example had very little effect upon 
the pirates, who still continued their inhuman 
treatment of all Christians that fell into their 
power, thinking that as long as they said their 
prayers several times a day, and performed the 
other duties of a good Mohammedan, they had 
a perfect right to treat their prisoners as they 
pleased. 

It is true that the captives would sometimes 
anger the pirates by making fun of their religion. 
The Mohammedan is commanded to pray five 
times a day with his face toward Mecca, and as 
no duties were ever allowed to interfere with these 
devotions, and as the ship frequently changed 
its course, they were sometimes obliged to take 
several new positions while making one prayer, 
being so particular about facing in the right 
direction that one pirate was generally appointed 
to consult the compass, in order to be perfectly 
sure that they were looking toward Mecca. 



THE BARBARY PIRATES. 5 1 

These things always seemed very funny to the 
Christian sailors, and they did not hesitate to 
show their contempt for such a religion, and as 
the Mohammedan holds his belief most sacred, 
the Tripolitans never omitted a chance to show 
the unfortunate captives that their insults had 
been duly noticed. 

The American fleet met with one very dis- 
couraging accident while cruising in the Medi- 
terranean. The frigate Philadelphia, com- 
manded by Captain Bainbridge, while chasing a 
Tripolitan corsair, struck on a ledge of rocks ; 
every effort was made to get her off, but all was 
in vain, and the Tripolitans in the harbor, seeing 
her condition, began firing upon her. 

Captain Bainbridge soon saw that it would 
be useless to return the fire, and therefore or- 
dered the flasf hauled down as a siom of surrender. 

The Tripolitans came swarming around, and, 
taking possession of the frigate, began plunder- 
ing the sailors of everything they possessed. 
Swords, epaulets, watches, trinkets, money and 
clothing were all taken from them ; they were 
then taken ashore and imprisoned, the officers 



52 THE BARBARA PIRATES. 

being treated somewhat kindly, but the com- 
mon seamen subjected to the poorest food and 
hardest labor. They spent many months in 
this wearisome captivity, but at last better days 
dawned. 

It was a great mortification to the other offi- 
cers of the ileet to see the Philadelphia lying on 
the rocks, a Tripolitan prize, and after a while a 
bold plan was made for her destruction. 

Lieutenant Decatur, commanding the Intrep- 
id, a little Tripolitan vessel that he had capt- 
ured a short time before, entered the harbor of 
Tripoli at night, and sailed close to the Phila- 
delphia before the Tripolitans discovered that 
their visitors were Americans. 

Decatur and his officers sprang on deck oi' 
the frigate, and the Mohammedans were so over- 
come by surprise and fear that they did not at- 
tempt to hinder the seamen from following- the 
bold leaders. 

In ten minutes the Philadelphia was in the 
hands of the Americans, and Decatur, knowing- 
that it would be impossible to move her, ordered 
her fired in a number of places at the same time. 



THE BARBARY PIRATES. S3 

The flames rose high in the air, telling the story 
of the recapture to Captain Bainbridge and his 
officers, and filling the Bashaw with wrath and 
dismay. 

Decatur and his men got quickly away with- 
out having lost a single man. After this the 
harbor was regularly bombarded by the Amer- 
ican commander, and after some delay the 
Bashaw came to terms. It was agreed that 
there should be an exchange of prisoners, man 
for man, as far as they would go, and that a 
treaty of peace should be made which should be 
honorable to the United States, and protect their 
shipping in the Mediterranean. 

Thus the Barbary States received a check 
which kept their pirates in wholesome dread of 
the vengeance that might follow them if they 
kept up their dishonorable practices, and during 
the years that followed, they were gradually 
made to understand that the flags of other 
nations must be respected, and that the Medi- 
terranean was as much a highway for the vessels 
of other countries as for their own. 

The action of the United States against the 



54 THE BARBARY riRATES. 



Barbary pirates showed the world that the new 
Republic meant that her flag should be respect- 
ed and that she would defend it at all cost. 

It was the first time that the stars and 
stripes had carried war into foreign waters, and 
the success of the brave little fleet that entered 
so fearlessly into the combat, gained the admira- 
tion of the world, and struck a death-blow to the 
bold sea-robbers who had so long held sway 
over the blue waters of the Mediterranean. 



CHAPTER III. 

\ THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 

When La Salle set up the lilies of France at 
the mouth of the Mississippi River, and took 
possession of the whole country through which 
the great river flowed, in the name of Louis 
XIV., he knew better than anyone else the mag- 
nificence of his gift, and in his dreams of the fut- 
ure, saw Louisiana a rich and powerful country 
adding wealth and glory to the French crown. 

His plan for connecting the St. Lawrence, 
by a great chain of forts to the Mississippi, 
which he thought rose somewhere near China, 
and thus commanding the trade of the East, 
shows that he well appreciated the value of that 
vast region which, in less than a hundred years, 
was to take such an important place in the his- 
tory of America. 

But after the death of La Salle his great 



56 THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 

plans were for the most part given up, and it 
was over ten years before France again sent out 
an expedition to explore her new possessions. 

In the meantime, however, many Canadian 
hunters, and several priests, had journeyed 
down from Canada in their birch-bark canoes, 
and had settled among the tribes who lived on 
the borders of the river, and in this way the In- 
dians of the Mississippi Valley grew familiar 
with the French language and religion, and in 
many cases formed strong and lasting friendships 
with the whites, and allowed them to travel up 
and down the river unmolested. And so all 
through the valley, from Lake Michigan to the 
Gulf of Mexico, could be found white men speak- 
ing the language of France, and priests minis- 
tering in little chapels built in the great for- 
ests, arid graced with the wild flowers that the 
natives loved to bring as their peace-offerings. 

Sometimes a little pulpit was made and hung 
to the trunk of a great oak, and there the priest 
would stand, while the Indians crouched by hun- 
dreds in the grass at his feet, and listened to the 
stories he told of a God so different from their 



THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. S7 

own, and of a Heaven so unlike their happy 
hunting-grounds. 

And the children lying at their mothers' feet 
would look from the calm face of the good 
priest, to the scowling countenances of the In- 
dian prophets and jugglers, who did not want 
their people to learn this new wisdom, and won- 
der which was better, to grow up and be strong 
and savage warriors like their fathers and 
brothers, or to become kind and gentle like the 
pale-faced priest, whose eyes were as soft as a 
fawn's, and whose low voice told them of a beau- 
tiful land where the summer stayed always, and 
the birds never ceased from singing. 

The priests gained great influence over the 
Indians by their pure and simple lives, and by 
their readiness and ability to help them in sick- 
ness, and even after the death of a priest the 
mothers would often bring their babies to the 
little altar in the woods where they had been 
baptized, and, with many wild ceremonies, half- 
Christian and half-heathen, call down blessings 
from Heaven upon themselves and their families. 

And in this way it happened, that when, 



53 THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 

ten years after the death of La Salle, the 
French flag again appeared at the mouth of 
the Mississippi, and French priests stepped on 
the shores, they seemed to the natives like old 
friends, for the visits of La Salle and Marquette 
had not been forgotten, and the men of the 
tribes had been almost as familiar, when children, 
with the voices of the good priests, as with the 
roar of the great river rushing through the 
forests. 

But to the French visitors who slowly ap- 
proached the mouth of the great river, every- 
thing was new and strange. 

As they leaned over the ship's sides and 
looked landward, they saw only acres and acres 
of tall reeds, rising five or six feet above the 
waters, and waving mournfully to and fro in the 
wind, while above them multitudes of strange 
birds flapped their wings and screamed out 
harsh, jarring notes. Below, the waters were 
thick with alligators, and far away was heard 
the deep roar of the river as it tossed to and fro 
the Qreat 1oq-s and rafts that were driftinsr down 
to the sea from the forests farther up. 



THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 59 

It was all very wild and gloomy, and as the 
night came down and the vessel pushed its way 
through the reeds and logs, and the sailors 
heard the hideous and unnatural cries that swept 
around the shore, they quite forgot the pleasant 
tales they had heard of Louisiana, and thought 
they must have come to some land of desola- 
tion and despair. 

But with the morning more cheerful thoughts 
came, and as they sailed up the river they saw 
that all the stories they had heard of this won- 
derful country were no doubt true, and that 
when the spring came the land would be as 
beautiful as they had ever imagined. 

On the tenth day they arrived at an Indian 
village, where they found a letter that had been 
left there years before for La Salle. It was 
from the Chevalier Tonti, who, on hearing that 
La Salle had left France with a fleet bound for 
the mouth of the Mississippi, started from 
Canada and came down the river to meet 
him. 

But after waiting in vain for his friend, he 
went back again to the Canadian lakes, leaving 



Go THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 

a letter with the natives to tell La Salle of his 
visit. 

But the letter was never delivered, for the 
brave leader for whom it was intended met his 
death while wandering hopelessly through the 
wilderness of Texas, and during all the years 
that followed, the Indians kept the " speaking- 
bark " reverently, and, when these new advent- 
urers came from France, gave it into their 
hands, and told them wonderful stories of Tonti, 
the iron-ha7idcd, as he was called, because of 
his having lost one of his hands, which had been 
supplied by another made of iron. 

It was pleasant to the visitors to hear these 
accounts of their countrymen and their friendly 
relations with the Indians, and they thought it 
gave fair promise for the future; for they well 
knew how difficult it would be to found a colony 
in this new country if the natives proved hostile. 

The principal tribe of Louisiana was the 
Natchez. These people were of a light mahog- 
any complexion, having regular and noble feat- 
ures, and fine, intelligent eyes. The men were 
all tall and well proportioned, the smallest 



THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 6 1 

Natchez ever seen by the French being five feet 
in height, and this was considered such a defect 
by the tribe that the man was looked upon as a 
dwarf, and kept himself hidden. 

The Natchez claimed that they had originally 
come from some place near the sun, and that 
through many years their tribe had journeyed 
eastward, following the rising sun, until it rested 
among the beautiful hills and plains of Louisiana. 

They believed that in former times their tribe 
had been very foolish and ignorant, living almost 
like brutes ; but while they were in this condition 
there appeared among them, one day, a man and 
a woman who had descended from the sun. They 
were clothed in garments of light, and their 
appearance was so dazzling that no human eye 
could look upon them. 

The man told the Indians that he had seen 
from the sun their miserable condition, and had 
come down to the earth to teach them how to 
live. 

The Natchez looked with wonder and awe 
upon these unearthly beings, but their faces, 
though majestic, were so full of love and kind- 



62 THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 

ness, that the ignorant savages felt that it would 
be a great blessing to the tribe to have such 
teachers, and besought them to dwell among 
them and teach them how to live well and beau- 
tifully, like the dwellers in the realms of the sun. 

The glorious visitors consented, on condition 
that the Indians would obey them in everything 
they commanded, and as the savages readily 
promised this, the man and woman took up their 
abode amongst them, and began teaching them 
the arts of peace. Certain laws were laid down, 
the principal ones being that they were never to 
kill anyone except in self-defence, that they were 
never to lie, and never to steal, and that they 
must be generous to their friends, charitable to 
their enemies, and give help to the poor and 
sick. 

These laws the Natchez promised faithfully 
to obey, and so well did they keep their promise 
that the tribe soon rose to honor and distinction. 

After the visitor from the sun had given his 
laws, he ordered two temples to be built at either 
end of the Natchez country, and here was placed 
the sacred fire which he called down from the 



THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 63 

sun, and ordered to be continually kept up with 
walnut-wood stripped of its bark, for, if the sacred 
fire ever ceased, great calamities would befall the 
nation. 

Eight priests were appointed for each temple, 
and if by any mishap the fire chanced to go out 
in one temple, it was to be replaced by hurrying 
to the other and borrowing some of its burning 
coals ; but the borrowed fire was not to be given 
without a fierce battle between the guardians of 
the two temples, so that the blood shed before 
the flaming altar would propitiate the evil spirits 
who were always trying to overcome the good. 
Whoever let the sacred fire go out was to be 
punished with death ; and if the holy flame dis- 
appeared from both temples, then the nation 
might know that grief and desolation were on 
their way to them. 

The descendants of these heavenly visitors 
were called Suns, and were made chiefs, the 
king being called the Great Sun, and the others 
Little Suns, and their persons were held sacred 
because of their divine origin ; and when any Sun 
died, numbers of the common people were sacri- 



64 THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 

ficed as a tribute to the royal blood of the de- 
ceased. 

The Natchez believed in a Great Spirit, the 
creator of the world, and in an Evil Spirit, who 
had at one time been very powerful, but now 
was chained in a dark cell. They also believed 
that there had once been a great flood, which 
had destroyed all the inhabitants of the earth, 
except a few who took refuge in a high moun- 
tain ; and they thought that the first man had 

i 

been moulded out of the same kind of clay that 
they used in making crockery, and that the 
Great Spirit had breathed life into him, and that 
everything in nature had been brought forth by 
the mere will of the Creator. 

The Great Sun was supported by the pres- 
ents which he received from the tribe during the 
religious festivals, which occurred several times 
a year, beginning with March, the moon of the 
deer, when the new year began, and the people 
rehearsed the great events of their history, which 
had been handed down from one generation to 
another by a certain class of young men, who 
were called the keepers of the voices of the past. 



THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 6$ 

These deeds of history were carefully treas- 
ured, and were often recited before the oldest 
men of the tribe, in order that they might cor- 
rect any wrong statement, and thus prevent 
mistakes. 

The tribe divided the year into thirteen 
moons, and at every new moon a festival was 
held, taking its character from the time of year. 
Besides the moon of the deer, there was the 
moon of strawberries, the moon of old corn, the 
moon of water-melons, the moon of peaches, of 
blackberries, of new corn, of turkeys, of bears, 
of geese, of chestnuts, and the thirteenth, the 
moon of walnuts. 

At each of these festivals the Great Sun 
received his tribute, which was always freely 
and gladly given by his subjects. 

In September, the moon of new corn, the 
festival was only second in importance to that 
of March. Preparations for it were begun early 
in the season, when a tract of new land was 
cleared by fire, and the corn was planted by the 
warriors of the tribe, led by the war-chief. Any- 
one else who attempted to take part in the culti- 



66 THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 

vation of this field of corn, was punished with 
death. 

When the corn was ripe, the warriors chose 
a well-shaded spot, where they built a large, 
round tower, which was filled with the new corn. 
Around this place were built little huts of branches 
and moss, and here the people came on the day 
appointed, and awaited the arrival of the Great 
Sun, who was carried to the tower in the chair 
of state, which was beautifully decorated with 
embroidered deer-skins and garlands of leaves 
and flowers, and borne by the most distinguished 
warriors of the tribe. Then, after a ceremoni- 
ous reception, the king was carried around the 
tower, which he saluted with three howls, which 
were responded to by nine long yells from the 
people. After this, the new fire was kindled by 
rubbing two sticks together, and the corn was 
roasted and eaten by the people, the feast being 
followed by singing, which in turn was put to 
an end by the war-chief, who struck his toma- 
hawk in a red post that always stood in the 
midst of the circle, and began relating his deeds 
of daring among other tribes. All the warriors 



THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 67 

followed with their speeches, after which the 
young braves struck the post and said what 
they meant to do when they became men. 

When night came, hundreds of torches made 
of dry reeds lighted up the scene, and then 
dancing began which lasted till daylight. And 
so the festival was continued, day after day, until 
the corn was eaten up and the feast ended by a 
return to the usual duties of life. 

The Natchez owed their great strength and 
stature to their early education, which was al- 
ways of a kind to strengthen the limbs and mus- 
cles ; from the age of three the boys were ac- 
customed to bathing in the river, winter and 
summer, and to performing all those exercises 
which develop and harden the frame. At twelve 
years they were put under an old man, who 
taught them all things thought necessary for 
them to know, and gave prizes to the strongest 
and most skilful. 

The girls were taught to make crockery, 
pots, bottles, basins, dishes and plates, and or- 
nament them with strange designs ; they also 
made nets to catch birds and fish, and could 



68 THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 

dress, and dye skins in various colors, and make 
bed-coverings of the bark of the mulberry-tree, 
and of the feathers of the wild-fowl that were so 
abundant. Both men and women were fond of 
fanciful dressing, and wore rings of bone, and 
collars decorated with alligators' teeth and the 
claws of wild beasts ; and when the whites came 
among them and brought little bells and other 
small ornaments, the Indians were delighted, 
and strung them around their necks and waists, 
taking great pleasure in their musical tinkling. 

When the French appeared in Louisiana, 
they were surprised to see so much order and 
harmony among these wild savages, and were 
much impressed by their grave and courteous 
manners, and saw that their respect for their 
laws and their veneration for truth and justice 
among themselves, would stand the whites in 
good service. 

At first things went on pleasantly enough ; 
the French took pains to be friendly with the 
Indians, and the Indians had a great respect for 
the pale-faces who could bring such destruction 
in battle by means of their magic weapons of 



THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 69 

war, and for many years there was no serious 
trouble. But in 1716 the little French colony 
in Louisiana learned that a party of Canadians, 
while travelling on the Mississippi, had been 
murdered by the Natchez. 

The Governor of Louisiana immediately or- 
dered soldiers to be sent right into the heart 
of the Natchez settlements ; they encamped on 
an island some distance from their enemies, and 
sent a messenger to ask the chiefs to a friendly 
conference, and as the Indians did not know that 
the French had heard of their treachery, they 
came to the meeting, and were in consequence 
easily taken prisoners. The Great Sun and two 
of his brothers were then held captive until they 
revealed the names of the murderers, and deliv- 
ered them up to justice. 

The French then built a fort in the midst of 
the Natchez villages, and their boldness in do- 
ing this, and the resolution they showed in 
bringing the guilty Indians to punishment, im- 
pressed the natives with such a sense of the 
white man's power that they agreed to a treaty 
of peace. 



JO THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 

This event is important in the history of 
Louisiana, as it gave a blow to the secret plans 
of the Natchez to drive the whites away from 
their country, and also gave the French more 
confidence in themselves, while showing at 
the same time to the world outside that the 
French occupation of Louisiana was something 
more than a name. A short time after this the 
new country became famous all over the civilized 
world as a place where every man who would, 
might make a princely fortune, and become the 
owner of vast tracts of the most valuable land 
on the face of the earth. * 

This idea was started by a Scotchman named 
John Law, who put himself at the head of a 
company called the Mississippi Company, which 
had for its object the making of immense fort- 
unes from the "colony of Louisiana. All over 
France books and papers were distributed, giv- 
ing the most glowing and fanciful descriptions 
of Louisiana. 

The wealth of Mexico and Peru was counted 
as nothing to the riches of this new country, 
which, for beauty and fertility, could only be com- 



THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. Jl 



pared with the Garden of Eden, or the Happy- 
Islands of the old Greeks. 

Wonderful stories were told of its beautiful 
mountains, clothed in eternal verdure, its happy 
valleys, warm with the southern sun, and its fer- 
tile soil, which brought forth spontaneously all 
the fruits of the earth, each month furnishing in 
turn its rich harvest of berries, pears, peaches, 
grapes, oranges, and tropical fruits. 

Here also could be found the finest domestic 
animals, as well as rare and beautiful birds, re- 
markable for their sweet singing and brilliant 
plumage. The robin and lark sang in the blos- 
soms of the trees, ducks, pheasants and wood- 
cock offered tempting morsels for the table, and 
gorgeous peacocks and dazzling white swans 
made their homes in the meadows and on the 
river-banks. 

The streams were full of choicest fish, so 
abundant that millions of men could be fed on 
them, and the forests were stocked with game, 
so that the poorest of the colonists could enjoy 
the delicacies that in Europe were only to be 
found at the tables of the noble and wealthy. 



72 THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 

And then the atmosphere possessed such 
wonderful qualities, that men grew old so slowly 
that one might hope to live much longer there 
than anywhere else. It was said that there were 
Indians there who still looked young although 
they were hundreds of years old, and best of 
all, these natives were of such kind and gener- 
ous disposition that they willingly became the 
slaves of the whites, and performed all their 
labor freely and gladly. 

And, greatest thing of all, the new colony 
possessed inexhaustible mines of gold and sil- 
ver ; indeed the whole surface of the country was 
strewn with lumps of gold, and the waters of the 
Mississippi were full of the same precious metal, 
while silver was so common it was used to pave 
the roads. 

The fields were covered with flowers which 
had the singular virtue of turning the night-dews 
that fell into them into diamonds, and over all 
this scene of beauty swept only the softest 
winds, while the skies above were always blue, 
and the sun shone month after month in un- 
clouded splendor. 



THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 73 

These extravagant stories spread from pal- 
ace to hut, arid all over France rose a wild 
desire to possess some of the wealth of this 
marvellous region. 

Kings and nobles, and common people and 
peasants, all looked upon John Law as the man 
who held the key to a kingdom of inexhaustible 
riches, and everywhere there was no thought 
of anything but the chance of going to Lou- 
isiana, or at least of purchasing some of its 
valuable land. So powerful did Law become 
that he received even the princes of the realm 
with haughtiness and condescension, while the 
greatest ladies in France were eager to court 
his favor, and it seemed to all that the word, 
Mississippi, was the open sesame that would 
lead them into vast treasure-houses of gold 
and silver. 

Hundreds of emigrants left France for the 
new colony, and if this belief in its wealth had 
been kept up very long, Louisiana would speedi- 
ly have become populated with Europeans. 

But a change came. It was found that Law 
was only a deceiver, and that the colony on the 



74 THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 

Mississippi was exactly like other colonies that 
had been planted in the New World — a place 
where one might have wealth and ease only by 
earning them with honest labor. 

All the stories about the beauty of Louisi- 
ana were at once contradicted. It was said to 
be a place of bogs and marshes, with a climate 
that brought disease and death. That the fruits 
and berries were all poisonous, and that the for- 
ests were peopled with monstrous beasts. That 
the rivers were full of reptiles which made the 
water unfit to drink, and the Mississippi every 
year rolled down such immense logs, and rose 
to such height, that it flooded all the country 
around and the people had to live in the trees 
like monkeys. That even the birds were gro- 
tesque in appearance and did not sing, the only 
sounds that could be heard being the howling of 
wolves, the screeching of owls, and the croaking 
of frogs so big that they could swallow children. 

And besides, it was said that Europeans in that 
country grew smaller year after year, until finally 
they became a race of pigmies, while the horses 
grew less in size until they were as small as 



THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 75 

sheep, the cattle became as small as rabbits, and 
the fowls were reduced to the size of sparrows. 

And the Indians who had been represented 
as kind and generous, were in reality cannibals 
who were constantly at war with the colonists. 

But the Mississippi Company had taken 
money from the people, and promised in return 
to colonize Louisiana so that their money might 
be returned to them with profit ; and when emi- 
grants suddenly showed a wish to return to 
France, and no one was any longer willing to 
leave a quiet home for the dangers and priva- 
tions of a life in the colony, then the Company 
sent agents all over France and compelled 
people to emigrate. 

Tramps, beggars, gypsies, wandering musi- 
cians, strolling-players, and homeless wanderers 
of every class were kidnapped by these agents 
and smuggled on board vessels bound for Louis- 
iana, and in some cases, even the most respecta- 
ble people were carried away from their homes 
and driven along the great public roads that led 
to the sea-ports, suffering from hunger and 
thirst and weariness in the day-time, and at 



J6 THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 

night sleeping in barns or fields, until the whole 
country was in a state of alarm, and the name 
Mississippi became so hated and dreaded, that 
the mothers for years and years afterwards 
frightened their naughty children by threatening 
to send them to the Mississippi. 

Law had to leave France in order to save 
his life from the hatred of the people he had 
ruined, and when the Mississippi Company 
came to an end, it left some of the wealthiest 
families of France reduced to poverty, and life 
in Louisiana a thing to be thought of with dread. 

The Company, though, had really been of 
benefit to the colony, as large numbers of emi- 
grants had gone thither, and the settlement and 
ownership of Louisiana by the French was thus 
carried on much more swiftly. 

New Orleans was founded in 1718 in the 
midst of a dense forest. The ground was 
swampy and marshy and filled with pools of 
staenant water, but the site was selected because 
it was considered to be the best place for the 
foundation of a large commercial city, and time 
has proven the truth of this belief. 



THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 77 

The town was begun by fifty men who had 
been chosen by the governor. Each man struck 
his axe at the same moment into an immense 
tree, and as the fifty trees fell to the ground, they 
marked the beginning of one of the most im- 
portant cities of the Union. 

An old squaw who was standing near, chant- 
ed a wild song while the men were at work, in 
which she said that the time of her death had 
come, since the white men had taken possession 
of the spot where she had dwelt a hundred sum- 
mers and winters, and that the Great Spirit had 
told her that in the years to come the dwellings 
of the pale-faces would stand as thick as trees 
between the river and the lake, while her own 
people would be doomed to perish from the land, 
and their memory would be like the mist that 
shrouded the face of the great father of waters 
in the cold mornings of winter. 

Although she was the only Indian who stood 
there watching the trees fall one by one around 
her, yet her dark prophecy of woe was felt by 
all the tribe. 

Many and fierce were the conflicts between 



78 THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 

the Indians and the whites in those early days 
of Louisiana, but the savages always felt despair 
in their hearts, for they knew they were no 
match against the oreater wisdom of the whites. 
And another cause of discouragement was the 
loss of the sacred fire. The guardians of the 
temples had let the holy flame die out, and for 
fear of punishment, had kindled it with a profane 
spark, and thus, when it happened afterward 
that the other temple fire went out and the priest 
came in haste to procure the borrowed coals, 
the sacred fire which he asked for could not be 
given him ; and when this became known among 
the nation, they felt that they had lost their 
most precious treasure, and would hereafter suf- 
fer all kinds of misery and woe as a punishment 
for the carelessness of the temple guardians. 

And this gloomy foreboding came to pass, for 
as time went on, the Natchez became fewer and 
fewer, their brave warriors were killed in battle, 
and multitudes of the common people were sold 
as slaves, until at last they, with the other tribes 
of Louisiana, gave up the contest in despair, and 
looked on with hopeless hearts while village 



THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 79 

after village, and town after town, arose peopled 
with whites, and merry pale-faced children played 
among the forests and groves of orange and 
magnolia trees, through which their own dark- 
eyed little ones had formerly wandered as free 
as the air, and as happy as the flowers at their 
feet. 

New Orleans was made the capital in a few 
years, and as all the colonists had long since 
given up the idea of gathering up gold and silver 
from the rivers and meadows, they turned their 
attention to the cultivation of the land. 

Great plantations were laid out, and as the 
peasants who had come from France found it 
almost impossible to work in the fields during 
the warm season, it was decided to introduce 
slavery into the colony. 

And so vessels were sent from France to 
Africa to bring slaves to Louisiana, and as the 
negroes were kidnapped from their homes and 
brought very fair prices when sold to the plant- 
ers, the slave trade became very profitable. 

The blacks performed almost all the field 
work, and as they could easily labor even in the 



80 THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 

greatest heat, the plantations soon became very 
valuable. 

Rice, cotton, indigo, corn, and tobacco were 
the chief productions of the cultivated portions 
of the country, while furs, skins, and boards were 
procured in abundance from the forests, and 
found a ready sale in the old world. 

In 1 75 1 some sugar-canes were sent from 
the West Indies, as a present to the priests in 
New Orleans. A few negroes, who understood 
the raising of these plants, were also sent, but 
although the greatest pains were taken, the 
attempt was unsuccessful, and for many years 
after that it was thought impossible to raise 
sugar in Louisiana. 

But in the midst of prosperity troubles arose 
in the colony, the Indians became more and 
more hostile, and the English had begun to 
make themselves troublesome. 

A great many soldiers had to be sent from 
France to keep order and defend the colonies 
from their foes, and as the expenses of this 
army were very great, and agriculture and 
trade began to suffer, it soon happened that 



THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 



Louisiana became very expensive to the French 
crown. 

One trouble followed another, and at last, 
after a long war with the English in Canada, 
France gave to England all her possessions east 
of the Mississippi, and to Spain, whose help she 
had asked, all her territory west of the Missis- 
sippi, and thus Louisiana came to be a part of the 
Spanish crown. This treaty was signed in 1762. 

The inhabitants of the colony, whites and 
Indians alike, disliked the idea of being governed 
by Spain, but all their prayers were of no avail, 
and they were forced to accept a Spanish gov- 
ernor and to consider themselves a part of Spain. 

A little while after this Louisiana received 
large numbers of the Acadians, whom the Eng- 
lish had driven from Nova Scotia. 

Ever since they had left their own homes in 
the north, the Acadians had been longing to 
seek refuge in some province of France, where 
they might live in the midst of their own people, 
and hear their own language, and be governed 
according to their own law and religion. And 
although the English had at first scattered the 



82 THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 

poor outcasts among their own colonies, the 
Acadians, by refusing to look upon their new 
neighbors as friends, and by their undying hat- 
red of their conquerors, at last became such a 
burden that the English were glad to let them 
go where they wished. 

And thus it happened that the first thing of 
importance that occurred after Louisiana be- 
came a part of Spain, was the arrival of these 
new-comers, whose hearts were still loyal to the 
lilies of France, and who joined with the Louis- 
ianians in their hatred of their new masters. 

Added to this dislike, the Spanish governor 
proved haughty and overbearing, caring little 
for the wishes of his French subjects. Trouble 
at once began, which increased year after year, 
until the Louisianians, joined by the Acadians 
and blacks, revolted against the power of Spain. 

But Spain considered it her interest to keep 
possession of Louisiana, and as a lesson to the 
colony, and in order to show her power to 
Mexico, which was also a Spanish colony, the 
leaders of the revolution were sentenced to 
death, and the power of the French was broken. 



THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 83 

Their dislike of Spain, however, increased as 
time went on, and notwithstanding the presence 
of the Spaniards the colony remained French. 

The richer class still retained the manners 
and customs of their beloved fatherland, and in 
the towns, and on the plantations along the river, 
could be seen the easy and graceful manners and 
the elegant costumes of the French court. For 
although the dwellings were very humble com- 
pared with the beautiful mansions of Paris, the 
Louisianians still surrounded themselves with 
all the luxury they could obtain, and in a home 
of the most modest pretensions might be seen 
the gold-embroidered coat, the lace and frills, 
and silver-handled sword, the brocaded gown, 
powdered head, and flowered skirts of the 
court. 

Although Spain put down the rebellion so 
quickly, discontent still remained, and there was 
constant trouble with the Spanish authorities. 

Indeed, during the forty years that Louisiana 
was held by Spain, its inhabitants never failed 
to show by word and deed their loyalty to 
France. 



84 THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 

Finally, in 1800, Spain gave Louisiana back 
to France. But France was in no condition then 
to take advantage of such a priceless gift. She 
was very much in debt, and was at war with 
nearly every country of Europe. 

The United States had in the meantime 
taken their place among the nations of the world, 
and the western territories had found it very bad 
for their trade to have the Mississippi in the 
possession of a foreign nation which might at any 
time declare war and close the river to Ameri- 
can vessels. 

The United States then thought of buy- 
ing the island on which New Orleans stands, 
and the right of passage to the Gulf, but before 
this offer was made France proposed to sell the 
whole region of Louisiana to the new Republic. 
The United States did not hesitate very long, 
and in 1803 paid France fifteen millions of dol- 
lars, and received in return all that vast territory 
lying between the Gulf of Mexico on the south 
and the British possessions on the north, and 
extending from the Mississippi to the Rocky 
Mountains. 



THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 85 

The purchase of Louisiana was one of the 
most important things in the early history of 
the United States. 

It doubled the territory of the country, and 
with its vast resources, promised to increase its 
wealth a hundred-fold. The culture of the sugar- 
cane had been successfully begun a few years 
before, and this, together with the immense 
cotton plantations, became a source of enor- 
mous riches. 

The city of New Orleans is to-day the 
greatest cotton market in the world, and its 
sugar trade is only second to that of Havana. 

The city still retains its French character, 
although it has been for nearly a hundred years 
a part of an English-speaking country; and in 
looking over its numberless streets, and beauti- 
ful dwellings, and busy population, one can see 
that the prophecy of the Indian sibyl at the time 
of its foundation has come true ; for the dwell- 
ings of the white man indeed stand as thick as 
the trees of the forest, while the red man has 
vanished from the scene forever, and even his 
memory is fading away. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE TO THE 
PACIFIC OCEAN. 

The purchase of Louisiana had given to the 
United States a vast region almost unknown to 
the white man. 

From the earliest settlement of America, the 
French in Canada had been familiar with the 
tribes living on either side of the Mississippi, and 
it was said they had even journeyed up the Mis- 
souri and become acquainted with the Indians 
of that part of the country ; but to the people of 
the United States all the great territory west of 
the Mississippi was as strange as the lands 
around the North Pole are to-day. 

But so great was the interest awakened by 
the purchase of the new lands, that the Govern- 
ment decided to send out an exploring party to 




PIONEERS IN THE 



EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 87 

gain information about Louisiana and report its 
value. 

This expedition was ordered to follow the 
Missouri up to its sources, and crossing the 
Rocky Mountains, descend to the sea by the 
streams, thus rinding out the great water-ways 
across the continent. It was also to study the 
habits of the strange tribes of Indians, and the 
nature of the country, its climate, soil, vegetable 
and mineral wealth, its mountains, volcanoes, 
lakes, and rivers, and the animals that roamed 
in its forests. 

The expedition was led by two officers by 
the name of Lewis and Clarke, and loaded with 
presents for the Indians, left St. Louis, which 
was then a small village, in May, 1804. 

It was the pleasantest part of the year to un- 
dertake such a journey, and for many days the 
party sailed peacefully up the river, enjoying the 
beautiful country through which they were pass- 
ing. 

In some places groves of cottonwood, syc- 
amore, hickory and walnut trees came down to 
the water's edge, their trunks twined thick with 



88 EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 

grape-vines, and their leaves drooping low over 
the rushes that lined the banks. 

Again could be seen clouds of peach-blossoms 
hanging above meadows beautiful with violets, 
cowslips and wild roses, while the prairies were 
red for miles with the ripe strawberries. The 
weather, too, was favorable to travelling, and as 
the sails were often sufficient to move the boat, 
the men could journey for hours at a time with- 
out even the exertion of rowing. 

The first thing that was unpleasant happened 
when they received news that the Indians would 
not believe that the country had been bought by 
the United States, and had burned the letter that 
had been sent to them telling them of this fact. 

But when the exploring party appeared 
among them, the natives showed a disposition 
to be friendly, and Captain Lewis remained with 
them several days. Among the tribes in this 
part of the country were the Osage Indians, who 
had a very curious belief as to their origin. 
They told the white men that ages and ages be- 
fore, a great snail that had been lying along the 
river bank, had been washed down to the mouth 



EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 89 

of the Missouri and ripened by the sun into a 
man. Then the Great Spirit gave him a bow 
and arrow, and taught him how to kill deer, and 
cook its flesh and make clothing of its skin. 

But when the new-made man started back 
to his home up the river, he was met by an old 
beaver who threatened to drive him away. As 
the snail-man was not so strong as his enemy, he 
would have had to leave the country forever had 
not the beaver's daughter fallen in love with 
him. The old beaver consented to their mar- 
riage, and they settled upon the banks of the 
Osage; but out of respect to their origin their 
descendants held the beaver as a sacred animal, 
and never hunted it. 

After this stop the party went on its way, but 
not quite so swiftly or pleasantly ; for the river 
was now in some places filled with drift-wood 
and sand-bars, and sometimes the oars had to 
be used all day. 

The country was still beautiful — the low- 
lands were covered with rich grass, vines, flow- 
ers and berries, with groves of cherry, willow, 
and hazel; plums and apples were abundant ; in 



90 EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 

the trees were strange birds, with voices like 
nightingales ; through the forests roamed herds 
of elk and deer. 

They travelled leisurely along, and after 
passing the Platte selected a shady and comfort- 
able position for camping, and sent messengers 
to the Pawnee and Sioux, and other tribes, in- 
viting them to a friendly meeting. 

The chiefs and their warriors readily re- 
sponded to the invitation, and there on the river- 
banks, with the great forest around them and 
the meadow-flowers at their feet, in the midst 
of beautiful and harmonious surroundings, the 
Indians gave their first promises of friendship 
to the United States ; and with their pipes of 
peace pointed toward the white captains, ac- 
knowledged the President of the Republic as 
their Great Father, and vowed to protect their 
white brothers who were travelling among 
them. 

It was the first treaty made with the Indians 
of the plains — and if the whites had kept the 
faith that w r as then given, the long years of 
trouble that followed would have been avoided ; 



EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 9 1 

but, whatever came afterward, both sides were at 
that time sincere, and so peace was kept and 
real friendship promised. 

The Indians were delighted with the pres- 
ents that were distributed among them, which 
consisted of flags, tomahawks, knives, beads, 
looking-glasses, richly laced coats, and medals 
imprinted with the likeness of the President ; 
and they in turn presented the travellers with 
choice robes and highly dressed skins. 

After the council was over, and the chiefs 
dismissed, the party proceeded on its way — - 
meeting now with immense herds of buffaloes, 
and noticing that the country still seemed rich 
and beautiful, though the summer was gone and 
the early autumn had begun to touch the leaves 
with frost and cover the river with morning and 
evening mists. The days were cool and the 
swallows had disappeared, while great flocks of 
white gulls, with wings tipped with black, circled 
above. 

Plums, grapes, and berries were ripe and 
abundant, and game and fish were easily ob- 
tained ; so that the travellers fared well, al- 



92 EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 

though the nights grew frostier and the sky was 
frequently darkened with the southward-flying 
birds. 

As they approached the north, the nights 
grew brilliant and beautiful with the tinted rays 
of the aurora and the golden splendor of the 
autumn moon. Herds of antelope were seen 
journeying toward their winter quarters in the 
Black Hills, and everything gave notice of the 
approach of the cold season. 

Late in the autumn the party arrived at the 
country of the Mandan Indians, within the pres- 
ent Territory of Dakota, and here it was decided 
to spend the winter. 

The Mandans received them hospitably, pre- 
sented them with handsome robes, and helped 
them build their cabins. By the time these 
.were finished the cold had come in earnest, the 
last swans had gone south, and the morning 
frost lingered on the trees till noonday ; then the 
snow came and the river froze, and the trav- 
ellers settled down to a quiet life in the Indian 
village. 

They made short expeditions up and down 



EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 93 



the frozen river, travelled on snow-shoes through 
the surrounding forests, and went on hunting- 
parties with their dark-skinned entertainers ; 
while in the evenings they all sat around the 
blazing fires and listened to the curious tales 
which the Indians told of hunting and fishing, 
and of the deeds of the chiefs and warriors, and 
their strange beliefs about life and the world of 
spirits. 

The Mandans believed that the whole tribe 
once lived underground near a wide, dark lake. 
Above, on the earth, grew a grape-vine, which 
sent its roots deep down into the ground and 
gave the people below their first glimpse of the 
light. Some of the tribe, more adventurous 
than the rest, climbed the grape-vine to the 
world above, and returned bringing clusters of 
purple grapes. This wonderful deed so excited 
the admiration of the dwellers by the lake that 
they all determined to climb the vine, and seek 
new homes above-ground. And this would 
have been accomplished had not the vine broken 
under the weight of one very fat old lady, who 
tumbled backward taking half the people with 



94 EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 

her. The remainder reached the light safely, 
and lived very contentedly above-ground ; but 
when they died they expected to return again 
to the lake, and dwell there forever. This and 
many another stranger tale the Mandans told 
with perfect sincerity, and the white men who 
listened felt that they were indeed a curious 
people, and as different from them as the inhabi- 
tants of another world. 

And so the winter passed in the little camp 
away up in the north, where the lakes lay frozen 
for months and the trees around their borders 
were white with snows. But the warm weather 
came at last ; the snow melted, and some tiny 
plants began to show themselves above-ground ; 
and the Indians gathered roots and herbs, and 
showed the whites how to use them for differ- 
ent purposes, such as the bite of a mad dog or a 
rattlesnake, or various other kinds of sickness. 

Overhead they saw the swans flying north- 
ward, and flies, and bugs, and gnats began to 
appear. The ice broke up in the river and came 
down in great quantities, carrying with it buffa- 
loes and other animals which the hunters se- 



EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 95 

cured. And in a little while the travellers built 
some new canoes, and started again on their 
journey. 

They passed the great bend in the Missouri 
and went on toward the mountains, which they 
were eager to reach, their way still lying amid 
pleasant scenes, for the spring was as beautiful 
here as farther south. The fruit-trees bloomed, 
and the willows put forth their golden leaves, and 
the cotton-wood hung full of purple blossoms. 
The robins came, accompanied by the curlews 
and larks, while far above the flocks of pelicans 
passed swiftly through the air on their journey 
to the far north. 

The country was alive with animals return- 
ing from their winter haunts — the squirrel, wea- 
sel, fox, marten, and hare appeared in immense 
numbers, as also the deer, antelope, white bear, 
and wolf. 

A little later the wild rose began to bloom, 
and the thrush to sing ; and amid such familiar 
sights and sounds the party went on its way 
through the new country. 

They passed the Yellowstone, and proceed- 



96 EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 

ed without mishap until they neared the Great 
Falls. 

Here they left the river, and began their 
overland journey to its sources. The paths 
were easy of travel, and the country as interest- 
ing as ever ; sometimes a loud noise would be 
borne to them on the wind, and echo and re- 
echo among the hills. The Indians said that 
this was caused bv the bursting of silver-mines 
in the mountains ; but although the travellers 
noted carefully the appearance of the soil and 
the bed of the river, they did not catch a glimpse 
of the wealth that lay hidden away there, and 
the mountains kept their secret for many a long 
year to come. 

The river grew narrower and more crooked 
as they went on, and up from its sides great 
granite-cliffs began to rise, like sentinels guard- 
ing the entrance to its source. The road be- 
came rugged and hard to climb, and progress 
was slow. Far away, the mountains towered, 
grand and beautiful, with their summits covered 
with snow ; and everywhere clear mountain- 
brooks rushed swiftly by, their waters as pure 



EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 97 

and cold as the ice-bound springs from which 
they started. 

Farther on, the road was often covered with 
snow, although it was the last of June, and in 
the valleys below the flowers were blooming. 
The mountains were covered with pine, cedar, 
and balsam trees, and their spicy odors filled the 
air and brought health and strength to the trav- 
ellers. At last they came to a wall of black 
granite, which rose high above and extended 
for miles and miles, leading to a passage 
which the travellers called the Gate of the 
Mountains, and passing through this they 
went on until they discovered the source of the 
Missouri. 

Part of their object was accomplished, for 
they had found the beginning of the river whose 
starting-point had always been such a mystery, 
and which had long been supposed to lead to 
the Pacific. 

But, although the waters of the Missouri did 
not actually go to the sea, it was still possible 
to reach it by continuing westward, and so Cap- 
tain Clarke and his company again started on 



98 EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 



their journey, and reaching the head-waters of 
the Columbia, after a toilsome passage of the 
mountains, again took to their canoes and pro- 
ceeded down the river toward the ocean. 

Canoeing was not always easy, as the river 
contained numerous rapids, narrows, and falls ; 
but as the adventurers were generally warned 
of these by the Indians, they went on without 
accident. 

The natives along the shores made frequent 
visits to the party of white men, and from them 
dried fish was procured, and also fine game. 

From one chief Captain Clarke received a 
sketch of the Columbia, and of some of the tribes 
along its banks. It was drawn with a piece 
of coal on a robe, and was afterward copied 
by one of the men in order to preserve its 
character. 

The journey down the Columbia occupied 
many weeks, and it was not until late in the 
autumn that the mouth of the river was reached ; 
but one rainy morning, when the fog was so 
thick that it hid all the surrounding country, 
and the hills and mountains showed only dim, 



EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 99 

uncertain outlines, the travellers stopped at a 
little Indian village to purchase some food and 
beaver-skins. The village was built on a little 
island in the middle of the river, which imme- 
diately below widened into a bay which was 
full of low islands below high-water mark. 
From one bank rose high mountains, and back 
from the other low hills stretched irregularly 
along. 

The white men made their bargains and pro- 
ceeded leisurely along, when suddenly the fog 
lifted, and there, right before their eyes, they saw 
the waters of the Pacific. A little farther on the 
roar of the breakers came to their ears, and they 
felt that their long journey was accomplished. 

It was on the 7th of November, 1805, when 
the ocean was reached, the party having trav- 
elled over four thousand miles since leaving St. 
Louis. 

As it was too late in the season to think of 
returning across the mountains, a good place 
was chosen for winter quarters and the party 
went into camp. 

Indian visitors frequently came to trade with 



IOO EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 

them, and the whites noticed that the natives 
were extravagantly fond of blue beads, counting 
them of more value than anything else. In one 
case the Americans, wishing to buy an otter-skin, 
offered the chief a watch, a handkerchief, a silver 
dollar, and a bunch of red beads ; but he refused 
each in turn, although the watch seemed very 
curious to him. He wanted only the blue beads, 
which he considered priceless. 

The winter was mild, and except for the fre- 
quent rains, agreeable, with so little cold that 
until January the meat had to be preserved by 
smoking. Some birds stayed all through the 
winter months, and in February the robins re- 
turned and insects began flying about. 

Captain Lewis and his men spent these 
months in studying carefully all the conditions 
of the new country, and the habits of the na- 
tives. 

They found that the Indians of the Colum- 
bia River region lived chiefly by means of fish- 
ing. From May till November the rivers and 
streams were alive with fishermen, who when the 
autumn came, buried the fish and began gather- 



EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. IOI 

ing roots and herbs till the snow came. Then 
the fish were dug up, and going up to the moun- 
tains they passed the winter in hunting, the game 
and fish providing them with food till the warm 
weather came. 

There were many different tribes living along 
the river, and their manner of life was carefully 
studied, as also their disposition toward stran- 
gers. For the most part the natives seemed 
willing enough to be friendly with the whites, 
and often assisted them in their explorations of 
the country. 

The trees, flowers, shrubs, and berries were 
all described in the journal kept by the leaders, 
as were also the beasts, birds, fishes, and insects, 
it being found that in some respects the trees, 
and flowers, and smaller animals resembled those 
of the East, and in many cases were of the same 
kind. As soon as it became possible to travel 
the party set out on its homeward journey, which 
it took several months to accomplish. They 
reached St. Louis in safety, and were received 
with the greatest enthusiasm by the inhabitants 
of that little village. 



102 EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 

The news of their return and the reports of 
their wonderful journey soon spread all over 
the country. In every town and village of the 
Union nothing was talked of but the wonders 
of the great West — its immense rivers, gigantic 
mountain-ranges, beautiful prairies, and fertile 
plains and valleys. 

Not until then did the people begin to realize 
how important had been the purchase of Lou- 
isiana, and what a source of wealth and power 
the new country might become. 

The Mississippi was no longer looked upon 
as the western frontier, but everyone looked be- 
yond it to the rivers that had so lately guided the 
canoe of the white man to the snowy peaks of the 
Rocky Mountains, and had led him at length to 
the shores of that western ocean which Spanish 
adventurer and French explorer had in vain tried 
to reach through the impenetrable forests and 
inhospitable plains that hindered their progress 
and made them turn back discouraged, little 
dreaming that the Pacific would at last be 
reached by the youngest of the nations, and that 
the first banner to float over the new country 



EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 103 

would be neither the gorgeous standard of 
Spain nor the fleur-de-lis of France, but the then 
unknown flag, whose little cluster of stars in its 
field of blue shone as purely as the mountain- 
snows that gleamed against the summer skies 
under which it was first unfurled. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 

In the early ages of the world, when the sea was 
yet to man a thing of awe and terror, whose 
uttermost limits were supposed to be peopled 
with demons and the spirits of darkness, the 
boldest sailors never ventured beyond a day's 
journey from the shore. 

Skirting slowly along the coasts, their little 
open boats would move from place to place, and 
city to city, carrying rare and valuable merchan- 
dise from the East to the Mediterranean towns, 
or creep cautiously along the Spanish and 
French shores up to Britain in search of tin 
and other metals, while all the time the sailors 
would be carefully examining the earth and sky, 
looking anxiously for good harbors as the night 
came on, and dreading nothing so much as the 
light of the first star, which often only came to 




THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 



THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 105 

them as a solemn messenger, warning them that 
the day was past and they were still far from 
port. 

For hundreds of years this method of sea- 
voyaging was kept up, and even much later on, 
when the fierce and courageous Norse vikings 
had begun to sail the northern seas in their 
staunch vessels, the ocean still seemed an awful 
and mysterious place, where sudden dangers 
might easily overtake, and unseen perils encom- 
pass, the adventurous mariner. 

And as the viking ships plunged through 
the stormy waves of the northern ocean, some- 
times lost in fogs, and often in danger of being 
crushed between great icebergs, or dashed to 
pieces against inhospitable shores, whose out- 
lines shone dimly through the shrouding sea- 
mists, the brave sailors on board felt that, fond 
as they were of the sea, it was still full of 
threatening evils, and as much to be feared as 
loved. 

After the invention of the compass, ocean 
voyaging became less dangerous, the Atlantic 
and Pacific came to be familiar highways, and 



106 THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 

regular travel was established between the Old 
World and the New. But although travelling 
by sea was safer and more comfortable than it 
had ever been before, it still seemed to many 
that great improvements might yet be made. 

And while Lewis and Clarke were moving 
up the waters of the Missouri in their Indian 
canoes, and the products of the Mississippi Val- 
ley were being carried down to New Orleans in 
flat-boats, and the vessels plying across, the At- 
lantic took weeks and months to make a single 
voyage, there was living in Europe an American 
inventor whose head was full of a great plan by 
which these slow ways of travelling might be 
done away with, and vessels be carried across 
the ocean, and up and down the great rivers of 
the United States, at a much faster rate than 
had ever been reached before. 

This man, whose name was Robert Fulton, 
had from his earliest childhood shown the 
greatest talent for invention. 

He was born in Lancaster, Pa., in the year 
1765, and lived for seventeen years in that 
healthy and beautiful region, seizing every op- 



THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 107 

portunity for studying drawing and mechanics, 
and often astonishing his friends by some clever 
little invention. 

He made wonderful toys and original fire- 
works ; he invented an air-gun, and was always 
welcome at the gunsmith's, where his ornamen- 
tal designs for decorating guns, and his sketches 
for new weapons of this kind, were often made 
use of; and his drawings and caricatures were a 
never-ceasing source of amusement to his friends. 

When the Revolution broke out, and the 
boys of the town divided themselves into "To- 
ries" and "Patriots," the young artist's sketches 
of the Tory boys were always greeted with 
shouts of enthusiasm by the Patriot class. So 
bitter was the feeling between the two parties 
that the boys used to meet regularly at sunset 
near the barracks, where some British prisoners 
were confined, and engage in a regular fight 
over a rope that was stretched across the street. 
After a few of these combats young Fulton 
drew a sketch representing the Patriot boys 
jumping over the rope and giving the Tories a 
desperate thrashing, and this picture so inspired 



I08 THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 

the young revolutionists that the next evening 
they followed out the hint it contained, and leap- 
ing over the rope, attacked the Tories so fiercely 
that the town authorities had to be called upon 
to stop the fight and forbid any future recur- 
rence of it. 

But although Robert Fulton was as fond of 
sport as other boys of his age, he was also 
very earnest and thoughtful, and even his 
amusements suggested grave thoughts to him. 
From his love of fishing he invented a little fish- 
ing-boat, with paddle-wheels to propel it, in- 
stead of the heavy and awkward pole that was 
in general use ; and in his expeditions into the 
country the flight of the birds through the air, 
and the motion of the fish through the water, 
often led him to wonder whether man, too, might 
not be able at some future time to travel from 
place to place more rapidly than he could do at 
present. 

But although this thought was always pres- 
ent with him, his early manhood was devoted to 
other things. At seventeen he went to Phila- 
delphia, and supported himself there for several 



THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. IO9 

years by painting - portraits and landscapes, and 
making drawings of machinery. 

After this he went to Europe, where he re- 
mained many years, studying, planning, and in- 
venting. Bridges, railways, canals, aqueducts, 
and machines of all kinds engaged his attention, 
and he was employed at different times by the 
English Government, which was very glad to 
make use of his many talents. 

He also was busy with plans for building 
great canals in the United States, thus connect- 
ing the East and West together, and providing 
means of transportation for the products of the 
different States. 

But all the time that he was o-ivinQf his atten- 
tion to so many different subjects he was still 
cherishing his great idea for a more rapid way 
of travelling by water. During all these years 
there hung on his wall a sketch of a steamboat, 
and in spite of delay and disappointment, he 
repeated with a cheerful heart his favorite motto, 
That the liberty of the seas would be the happi- 
ness of the earth. 

One of the greatest of Fulton's inventions 



I IO THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 

was the torpedo, which was used for blowing up 
vessels of war. The English Government pro- 
vided a brig for an experiment with the torpedo, 
and hundreds of people lined the shore, on the 
day chosen, to watch the result. The experi- 
ment was a complete success, the explosion of 
the torpedo lifting the brig high in the air, 
breaking her in two and shattering her to pieces 
as easily as if she had been an egg-shell. 

But it was thought by the great inventor that 
the torpedo could be used to much greater ad- 
vantage if it could be sent from a boat underneath 
the water. He therefore turned his attention to 
the invention of a diving boat for carrying tor- 
pedoes. After some time he built a vessel 
which he thought would be suitable for such 
purposes, and in the spring of 1801 decided to 
make an experiment on the French coast at 
Brest ; but it was not until the following August 
that he considered his invention a perfect suc- 
cess, since many trials were made before all the 
difficulties of such an undertaking were over- 
come. The boat was called the Nautilus, and 
was so constructed that her sails and rigging 



THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. I I I 

could easily be hauled down, and the vessel thus 
allowed to plunge down into the water. Near 
the bow was a window of thick glass, which 
gave sufficient light to tell the time by, and in a 
copper globe was forced a large quantity of pure 
air, so that the crew could remain for hours un- 
der water with perfect safety. 

With such a vessel as this, a country would 
have all the ships of war in the world at her 
mercy. 

The Nautilus could approach a vessel, launch 
a torpedo at her, and then dive below the water 
completely out of sight, and only reappear again 
when many leagues away. 

This wonderful invention filled Europe with 
astonishment. Twenty years before the world 
had beheld with amazement the first balloon 
rise in the air, and now it seemed that man's 
ingenuity had found a means of rivalling the 
powers of the monsters of the deep as well as 
those of the birds of the air. Men began to talk 
of what was waiting for the race in the future, 
and with these wonderful inventions in mind it 
no longer seemed impossible to believe that the 



112 THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 

time might come when people would fly through 
the air and walk upon the sea. 

But although such boats as the Nautilus 
might be considered very useful in war, Fulton 
thought a great deal more about making a ves- 
sel that would be useful in time of peace. 

Already many inventors of different nations 
had attempted to build boats that could be 
moved by steam, but so far all had been unsuc- 
cessful. 

Fulton set himself about finding where the 
faults lay, and after many trials and failures at 
last made a model which he thought would an- 
swer. From this model he built a boat, while 
still in France, and proposed making an experi- 
ment with her on the Seine. But just as the 
preparations were about complete, word was 
brought to him that the boat had broken in 
pieces and gone to the bottom. Fulton found 
that the machinery had been too heavy for 
the frame of the boat, and not in the least 
discouraged by the accident began building a 
larger vessel. The same engines were used, 
and the boat, when completed, was sixty-six feet 



THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 113 

long and eight feet wide. The trial trip was 
made in the presence of the members of the 
French National Institute, and large numbers of 
Parisians, and was entirely satisfactory. 

Fulton was now so confident that steam 
could be used for propelling boats, that he im- 
mediately sent to England and ordered parts of 
a steam-engine to be made and sent to America, 
intending that his next steamboat should be 
built in that country. 

He reached the United States in 1806, and 
at once set about his work of building a larger 
vessel than he had yet attempted. 

All during - the time that the new boat was 
building, Fulton and his friends were subjected 
to the ridicule and sneers of those who had no 
faith in the project. ' 

As it was very expensive to undertake such 
a work, there was an attempt made to borrow 
money, giving the lender an interest in the ves- 
sel ; but every effort of this kind met with utter 
failure. Men would have as soon thought of 
lending money to build a flying machine to go 
to the moon. One of the chief objections to 



114 THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 

the scheme was that it would take so much wood 
to keep up the fires that the boat would break 
under the weight of the engines and fuel. 

But Fulton paid no heed to these objections, 
and kept on with his work. The boat was fin- 
ished in 1807, furnished with the engines from 
England, and in the same year made her first 
trip on the Hudson. On the day of launching, 
the shores of the Hudson were lined with spec- 
tators, nearly all of whom had been drawn 
thither by the desire to ridicule the boat and its 
builder. 

But the new vessel, which had been named 
the Clermont, soon proved that Fulton well 
knew how wisely he was building. She glided 
out from the wharf with the ease of a swan, and 
as each revolution of the wheels showed the suc- 
cess of the undertaking, loud shouts went up 
from the excited lookers-on, and the name of 
Fulton was cheered to the skies. 

A short time after this the Clermont made 
her first trip to Albany, creating the most in- 
tense excitement all along the shores of the 
Hudson ; many of the people of that region had 



THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 115 

never even heard of a steam-engine, and when 
they saw this strange-looking - object moving up 
the river in the face of wind and tide, their curi- 
osity and surprise knew no bounds. Never be- 
fore, since the white sails of the Half-Moon had 
appeared beneath its wooded hills, had the Hud- 
son witnessed so strange a sight as this. 

The simple villagers looked out of their win- 
dows in dismay at this strange monster that was 
breaking the quiet of the night with such un- 
earthly sounds, and breathing out flames and 
smoke as he approached. 

The fishermen, in their little shallops, and 
the crews of the small vessels drifting down 
stream, or lying at anchor, were terror-stricken, 
and fled to the shore or took refuge in their 
cabins, only venturing to look out again when 
the dreadful noises had died away, and the aw- 
ful object had vanished in the darkness, leaving 
only a long train of light behind to show that 
the whole thing had not been a dream. 

When the Clermont passed Poughkeepsie a 
group of villagers standing on a high bluff oppo- 
site were just as terrified, although it was day. 



Il6 THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 

They watched the strange visitant approaching 
without being able to imagine its nature in the 
least. Some declared it was a sea-monster, 
while others said they believed it to be a sign 
of the approaching judgment. When it came 
nearer, and they saw it was some sort of a ves- 
sel, their astonishment was still greater ; for in- 
stead of gracefully tapering masts and swelling 
sails, they saw only straight black pipes rising 
high above the deck, and naked paddle-wheels 
turning and splashing, while dense clouds of 
smoke filled all the air and dimmed the vision 
of the wondering crowd. 

The Clermont reached Albany safely, run- 
ning at the rate of five miles an hour, and prov- 
ing beyond a doubt, that navigation by steam 
was as safe and practicable as sailing or rowing, 
while the advantage gained by being able to 
move against wind and tide was so great that 
it could not be calculated. 

In 1812 two steamboats were built by Fulton 
to be used as ferry-boats for crossing the Hud- 
son River, taking twenty minutes for the trip, 
and at the same time floating docks were built 



THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. WJ 

at the wharves, so that the boats could come to 
shore without a shock. 

After this the building of steamboats went 
on rapidly, and in a few years the sound of the 
steam-whistle, and the clouds of smoke and 
sparks from the huge black pipes, became al- 
most as familiar to the dwellers of the Ohio and 
Mississippi valleys as had been the Indian canoes 
or the ugly and ungraceful flatboat. 

Ocean travel by steam was only delayed a 
few years. In 1819 the steamship Savannah 
made a voyage across the Atlantic to Liverpool, 
going from there on to St. Petersburg, stopping 
in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The Swed- 
ish kinsr offered one hundred thousand dollars 
for the vessel, but as the amount was to be 
paid in hemp and iron the offer was refused. 

At every port thousands of spectators came 
thronging down to the shore to see this wonder- 
ful messenger from across the seas, whose white 
sails now gleamed along the rugged northern 
coasts, and then again were folded like the 
wings of a tired bird, while she still glided se- 
renely on her way secure against wind and tide. 



Il8 THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 

The voyage of the Savannah led the way to 
the organization of numerous steamship compa- 
nies, and as time went on, passenger vessels 
and ships of war were alike thought incomplete 
unless furnished with steam power. At first the 
paddle-wheels were so made that they could be 
taken off and stored away while the ship went 
on under sail ; but the years brought gradual 
improvements, until the ocean steamer became 
the almost perfect vessel that it is now. 

As Fulton had foreseen, the invention of the 
steamboat was one of the most important things 
in the history of civilization. Without it the 
great rivers of the world would still only be used 
by sailing vessels, dependent on currents and 
winds, and ocean travel still be the tedious and 
dangerous thing it was when months were spent 
in sailing across the Atlantic, in a ship wholly 
at the mercy of the weather, and liable at any 
time to be driven upon a strange coast, or to 
drift hopelessly among icebergs, and blinding 
fo^rs to sure destruction. 

Fulton died in 1815, and was buried in Trin- 
ity Church-yard, New York, and although it is 



THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. IIQ 

said he left his family penniless, he yet had the 
satisfaction of knowing that his life had been 
spent in noble service for his fellow-men, and 
that his dreams and ambitions had become ac- 
complished and perfected, and a source of last- 
ing good to the world. 

Between his age and that of the early Phoe- 
nician voyagers, the changes had been great and 
eternal. No longer did the stars shine through 
the dim twilight, as mysterious signs of danger, 
but, on the contrary, the sailor had learned to 
read his path in their golden light, and in times 
of distress to fix his only hope on their change- 
less courses. 

No longfer did the shore seem the safest 
place when the night settled down over the 
waters, but instead, the great beacon-lights 
flaming from headland and cliff had come to be 
solemn warnings that his frail craft was safest 
out on the broad deep, and that the darkness 
that shrouded him was often the best protection 
against the unseen foes that might be travers- 
ing the seas in search of him. 

Those early days of terror had departed for- 



120 THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 

ever, leaving in their stead the knowledge that 
the great oceans had been turned into vast 
highways, where ships sped after one another 
like the endless flight of birds, and man had 
learned that his greatest safety lay in that mu- 
tual help of man to man which had brought the 
seas in subjection to him, and had given him 
control over its wayward winds and restless 
waves. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE. 

While the Atlantic coast of the United States 
was being built up with wealthy cities and thriv- 
ing villages, and the western frontier was ex- 
tending far beyond the Mississippi, the Indians 
of the Ohio Valley were still roving in lawless 
tribes through the fertile regions of Kentucky 
and Indiana, as savage as ever in their hatred 
of the whites, and only kept in check by their 
fear of a powerful Government. 

The white settlers along the Ohio and its 
branches lived in constant terror of these bands 
of treacherous redskins, who did not seem to 
understand what faith or gratitude meant, and 
signed treaties and accepted kindness at the 
same time that they were revolving schemes of 
destruction and murder. 

In many cases these outrages were the re- 



122 THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE. 



suit of the bad treatment of the settlers, who 
generally looked upon the Indian as a deadly 
foe incapable of understanding either justice or 
mercy, and as year after year passed, and the 
savage saw his lands gradually taken posses- 
sion of by the whites, and his favorite hunting- 
grounds turned into farms, he became more and 
more resentful toward the Government which 
allowed such things, and showed his hatred in 
any cruel way that became possible. The whole 
history of the settlement of the West is the his- 
tory of wrongs done to the Indians, and their 
savage and bloody retaliations. 

In every case where dispute arose as to the 
rights of property, the Indian saw the difference 
settled in favor of the white man, and was made 
to feel that justice was a thing he must not look 
for. 

The Government of the United States gave 
away immense tracts of Indian lands to white 
settlers, forcing the original owners to take in- 
stead worthless presents of beads, blankets, 
fire-arms, and whiskey, and tribe after tribe 
was obliged to leave its pleasant dwelling-place 



THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE. 1 23 

among the familiar mountains and valleys, and 
seek a home far to the west, where the white 
man had not yet cared to penetrate. 

Such a course could only result in constant 
trouble ; the settlers were never safe from the 
attacks of the Indians, and the Indians were 
never sure that they would not be driven at any 
moment away from the places they had loved 
from childhood. 

The old men of the tribes prophesied gloom- 
ily of the time to come when the red man would 
have vanished utterly from the hunting-grounds 
of his forefathers, and the young warriors could 
only listen with despair in their hearts, or turn 
their eyes sadly toward the West, in the hope 
that beyond its boundless prairies and towering 
mountain-chains might still be found a place 
where they might abide in peace and keep their 
homes free from the white man's touch. 

The leading tribe of the Ohio valley were 
the Shawnees, whose brave and warlike chief, 
Tecumseh, was celebrated all along the West- 
ern frontier. Many a bloody victory had he 
gained over the offending whites, and his wig- 



124 THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE. 

warn was hung thick with trophies of battle and 
the chase. Besides being - mighty in war, and a 
skilful ruler over his tribe, he was of a serious 
disposition, and earnest in his endeavor to be of 
use to his unfortunate countrymen. Like King 
Philip and Pontiac, he dreamed of a time when 
his land should a^ain be free from the hated 
presence of the white man, and he looked for- 
ward to the day when the Indians should unite 
and form a brave and powerful nation, too great 
to be ever subdued by any invading foe. 

To him the gloomy prophesies of the old 
men seemed weak and cowardly, and the treaties 
which the other tribes were constantly making 
with the whites roused his indignation and dis- 
gust. He held that all the Indian lands were 
common property among the various tribes, and 
that no chief could sign away land without the 
consent of all the tribes who used the rivers for 
fishing, and the forests and prairies for hunting. 

But the United States Government paid lit- 
tle heed to this doctrine, and tired of wars and 
massacres, and anxious to protect the settlers, 
signed, in 1809, a treaty at Fort Wayne with 



THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE. 12$ 

several chiefs, who gave up their titles to three 
millions of acres of land, lying along the Ohio 
and its tributaries. 

Tecumseh refused to acknowledge this treaty, 
and threatened death to all who signed it, and 
calling a council of his warriors, declared his 
intention of driving the whites out of the 
country. 

His brother, Elkswatawa, who was called the 
Prophet, and claimed to have received revela- 
tions from the spirit-world, joined his counsels 
to those of Tecumseh, and very soon the Shaw- 
nees were eager for the fight, and ready to fol- 
low their brave leader to victory or death. The 
messengers of war were sent from tribe to tribe, 
but so cautiously that the whites had no suspi- 
cion of the intended rising, and never dreamed 
that the Indian that they had seen in the morn- 
ing peacefully traversing the forest or dropping 
down the quiet river in his slowly moving canoe, 
would at nightfall be standing around the camp- 
fire of some distant tribe, with his lifted hands 
red with blood, and his busy tongue charming 
his listeners with the eloquent pleadings that 



126 THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE. 

Tecumseh knew so well how to put into the 
mouths of his emissaries. 

Tecumseh himself travelled as far south as 
Tennessee, urging the nations to rise and join in 
one more great struggle with the whites, prom- 
ising them that their lands would again be their 
own, and their hunting-grounds once more free 
to the red man as in the days of old. 

Elkswatawa, too, inspired the tribes with his 
own wild enthusiasm, claiming that he had re- 
ceived promises of success from the world of 
spirits, and holding out honors and rewards to 
those who would join the Shawnees. 

The Indians might doubt the revelations of 
Elkswatawa, and laugh at his dreams and vis- 
ions but they could not doubt the faith and 
power of Tecumseh, who had led them to many 
a fierce victory, and whose name always carried 
terror to the hearts of the hardy frontiersmen. 
And so the tribes laid aside their petty jealousies 
and agreed to unite in a common cause. 

News of the great conspiracy reached the 
Government, and Governor Harrison, in com- 
mand of the West, tried in vain to make peace. 



THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE. 1 27 

But Tecumseh would listen to nothing - except- 
ing a promise to have back the lands that had 
been given away by the chiefs at Fort Wayne. 

But Governor Harrison refused this, and 
sending for soldiers, prepared for war. The 
Indians immediately began to prowl through the 
Wabash Valley, and the settlers found that all 
their old troubles had come back. Lonely farm- 
houses were attacked at night and the inmates 
murdered ; prosperous little villages were plun- 
dered and burned ; women and children were 
carried off to torture and captivity, and the work 
of years of careful saving and hard labor de- 
stroyed in an hour. 

Harrison marched into the valley and pro- 
ceeded toward the town of the Prophet, near the 
mouth of the Tippecanoe. Here he was met 
by messengers from Elkswatawa, who asked 
for a conference, to be held on the following 
day. The governor granted this request, and 
the army encamped for the night on a piece of 
high ground overlooking the surrounding coun- 
try. A small creek bounded the encampment 
on one side, and all around were spread out the 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE WAR OF l8l2. 

Hardly had this little war-cloud passed away 
from the West, when the Government had to 
turn its attention to its affairs with England. 

For some time Great Britain had been at 
war with France, and the vessels belonging to 
the United States had carried on most of the 
trade with Europe. The work was dangerous, 
for both England and France thus claimed the 
right to seize American ships as prizes. 

In addition to this, England declared her in- 
tention of searching all American vessels, and 
claiming any English seamen that might be 
found thereon. • 

This right the United States denied ; but 
England replied by saying that any person born 
in British dominion never ceased to be a sub- 




AUKJAH. ANIi REBECCA BATK.S REPULSING Tilt: BRITISH. 



THE WAR OF l8l2. I31 

ject of Great Britain, and that, in fact, once an 
Englishman meant an Englishman forever. 

And thus, quite disregarding the wishes of 
America, her officers boarded American vessels, 
looked over their crews, and seized any individ- 
uals whom they were pleased to fancy English, 
and forced them into service in the English 
navy. 

These insults to the American flagf roused 
such feeling in the United States that the Presi- 
dent ordered all English vessels to leave Amer- 
ican waters, and this was soon followed by an- 
other order forbidding American vessels from 
leaving port, as it was considered that in the 
event of war their presence would be needed to 
defend the coast. 

But it was soon found that the latter com- 
mand interfered very seriously with American 
commerce, and it was removed, although all in- 
tercourse with France and England was strictly 
forbidden. This state of things made American 
travel on the ocean most difficult, and almost 
discouraged foreign trade, for no vessel could 
leave a port of the United States, bound for 



132 THE WAR OF l8l2. 

any European port, and engaged only on the 
most peaceful errand, without danger of being 
hailed by French or English men-of-war, and 
compelled to fight for its right of way over 
the seas. 

Not content with this, England even went 
so far as to favor the seizing of American ships 
as prizes in American waters, and once when a 
United States frigate hailed a British sloop-of- 
war off the coast of Virginia, the British com- 
mander replied by a cannon-shot. 

The American commander at once sent a 
broadside into the sloop, silencing her guns and 
killing and wounding many of her crew, and the 
British officer was then willing enough to return 
a civil salute to the first peaceful greeting of the 
Americans ; but the circumstance produced great 
excitement through the country, and as England 
still refused to abandon her offensive course, 
war was declared between the two countries, 
June 19, 1812. 

Much of the success of the Revolution was 
due to the feeling of union that existed between 
the Colonies. They all felt that what was the 



THE WAR OF l8l2. 1 33 

wrong of one was the wrong of another, and 
joined hands heartily and helpfully against the 
common foe. 

But the war of 1812 was from the beginning 
very unpopular with many of the States, and 
much opposition was raised against it. Some 
declared that the French had been as aggres- 
sive as the English, and others said that the 
war was undertaken solely to protect the inter- 
ests of the merchant class, while the farmers and 
mechanics and manufacturers would only suffer 
from it. 

But this opposition had little effect upon the 
Government, and when the struggle actually 
began, the old feeling of patriotism blazed forth 
as brightly as ever, and men and money were 
generously provided, and small attention paid 
to the grumblers. 

At first there seemed small chance of Amer- 
ican success. The whole of the West was given 
up to a combined force of English and their 
Indian allies, under Tecumseh, without a gun 
being fired, General Hull, the commanding of- 
ficer, ordering the white flag raised just as the 



134 THE WAR OF 1 8 12. 

attack was to be made, although the gunners 
stood with lighted matches waiting the signal 
to lire, and the troops with tears in their eyes 
beeped him not to abandon the defence. 

Hull surrendered the whole of Michigan, 
with its garrisons and military stores, without 
even demanding the honors of war for his own 
men, and thus the West, at the very beginning 
of the struggle, passed into the hands of the 
enemy. 

Later on the British obtained command of 
the Niagara and Lake Ontario, and were thus 
enabled to command the Canadian frontier, and 
prevent the Americans from entering British 
territory. 

These losses would have disheartened the 
Americans had it not been for their brilliant 
naval victories. The Colonists had proved dur- 
ing the Revolution their ability to storm forts, 
surprise garrisons, overcome the enemy by 
strategy, and defeat him in pitched battles ; but 
it was reserved for the American navy in the 
war of 1812 to show to the world that England, 
whose flag had hitherto ruled the seas, had at 



THE WAR OF l8l2. 135 

last met a foe as wily, brave, and persistent as 
she was herself. 

The first memorable naval victory was that 
of the American frigate Constitution, command 
ed by Captain Hull, over the English ship of 
war the Guerriere. The Guerriere began the 
engagement, but Captain Hull refused to fire a 
gun in return until he had brought his vessel in 
the position he wanted. He then opened such 
a destructive fire that in a short time the hull, 
masts, and rigging of the Guerriere were shat- 
tered to pieces, and her deck swept clean. 

An officer was sent alongside to demand the 
surrender of the vessel ; but the spirit of the 
English commander could hardly be brought to 
consider a defeat possible. He refused to ac- 
knowledge his loss until the American threat- 
ened to return to the Constitution and sink the 
Guerriere with a broadside. This brought him 
to terms, and he and his remaining men sur- 
rendered as prisoners of war. 

England could not believe that American 
seamen could gain such victories over her ex- 
perienced navy, and her men fought with the 



136 THE WAR OF l8l2. 

utmost bravery to sustain their world-wide 
fame. 

At the next engagement of note, which took 
place off the coast of North Carolina, the British 
defended their ship so well that when the suc- 
cessful Americans boarded her, her colors were 
still flying, there being no one left to haul them 
down, as the man at the helm was the only one 
who had escaped unharmed. 

Success followed success. During the first 
year of the war three hundred prizes were cap- 
tured by American vessels, and England began 
to be alarmed, and had the army been as vic- 
torious as the navy, the war would soon have 
come to an end. 

But in spite of the efforts of the Americans, 
the English still held the West, and it was not 
until Perry's brilliant naval victory on Lake 
Erie, September 10, 18 13, when the entire Brit- 
ish squadron surrendered to him, that affairs on 
the Canadian border began to look more en- 
couraging. 

In this engagement, the flag-ship was en- 
gaged at the same time with two of the heaviest 



THE WAR OF l8l2. 137 

vessels of the enemy, Perry remaining on board 
until he had only eight men left. After helping 
to fire the last gun, he jumped into a boat, car- 
rying his flag with him, and started for the Ni- 
agara. The British turned their guns upon 
him, but although he was within pistol-shot he 
passed through safely. Fifteen minutes after 
he mounted the deck of the Niagara he claimed 
the victory. Perry was at this time only twenty- 
seven years of age, and serving in his first na- 
val battle, while the English commander had 
seen years of service under the celebrated Ad- 
miral Nelson. 

This victory, together with the battle gained 
by Harrison over a force of British and Indians 
on the Canadian frontier, really decided the war. 
One of Harrison's colonels inflicted a mortal 
wound on Tecumseh, and with his death the 
Indian allies fled in confusion, and were never 
afterward of very great service to the English, 
who had largely depended upon their aid in 
carrying on the war in the West, trusting to them 
to perform those terrible deeds of murder and 
revenge which, as a civilized nation, they were 



138 THE WAR OF l8l2. 

ashamed of indulging- in themselves, the British 
general offering a reward for every scalp that 
the Indians brought him, and encouraging the 
savages in the most brutal acts against the 
Americans. 

In addition to the troubles in the West, and 
the battles on the lakes and ocean, the people 
all alone the Atlantic coast were likewise called 
upon to endure the fortunes of war. 

Admiral Cockburn, of the British navy, 
cruised up and down the coast, making sudden 
descents upon unprotected communities, burn- 
ing bridges, farm-houses, and villages, and com- 
mitting other outrages unworthy the name of 
an English officer. He destroyed crops, burned 
forests, robbed the Americans of their slaves and 
money, murdered the sick in their beds, and 
even plundered the churches of their commu- 
nion services. 

Following this, General Ross marched to 
Washington, burned the capitol, which was yet 
unfinished, destroyed the President's mansion 
and public libraries, and sparing nothing but the 
Patent Office, and that only because it contained 



THE WAR OF l8l2. 139 



inventions which were of as much use to the 
rest of the world as to America. 

The Secretary of the Navy had ordered 
the navy-yard to be burned on the approach of 
the British, and the loss of guns, ships, build- 
ing's, arms, and marine stores was enormous. 
But in spite of these outrages the British re- 
gained their ships without trouble, and pro- 
ceeded on their work of destruction along the 
coast. 

Along the New England coast the inhabi- 
tants did not submit so tamely. Several times 
when the British attempted to land they were 
beaten back by the militia, and in every case 
they were so harassed and worried by the in- 
habitants that they could not repeat the ravages 
they had committed in the Soyth. 

But in spite of the brave defense of the New 
Englanders, their trade and manufactures suf- 
fered severely. The fisheries were almost de- 
stroyed, and the salt-works at Cape Cod only 
escaped upon payment of a heavy ransom. The 
British kept up a blockade of the entire coast, 
which resulted in so great an injury to the for- 



140 THE WAR OF 1 8 12. 

eigm commerce that the lights in the beacon- 
houses alone shore were allowed to die out, as 
they only served to guide the enemy in his mid- 
night marauding. 

But although it seemed more than once that 
, the English would eventually gain the day, the 
Americans never gave up hope. The British 
brought to the conflict men tried in the field 
and used to the trying emergencies of naval 
war, while their ships and commanders had 
names already famous in the world ; the Amer- 
icans, on the other hand, had to depend upon 
raw recruits, and their navy was poor and insig- 
nificant ; but the militia did not flinch before the 
British veterans — the navy was furnished with 
vessels built from trees that had often been 
standing in the forest but a few days before an 
engagement, and their commanders proved by 
many a glorious victory that England could no 
longer hold her rulership over the seas. Even 
in the midst of the gloomiest surroundings the 
Americans did not lose faith ; the " Star-span- 
gled Banner" was written by Francis Key, an 
American captive on board an English vessel, 



THE WAR OF I5I2. HI 

even while the sound of English guns firing into 
the harbor of Baltimore was ringing in his ears ; 
and in New England, women and children, 
forced to flee from the approach of British sol- 
diers, returned afterward to their ruined homes 
only with fresh determination to resist the in- 
vader at every point, and maintain the cause of 
their country even unto death. 

The war went on during the year 1814, 
the Americans being sometimes successful, and 
sometimes the English. But the possession of 
the West and the command of the Canadian 
frontier, the unexpected success of the navy, 
and the desertion of the Indian allies, all told to 
the advantage of the Americans, and toward the 
close of the year the British Government began 
to talk seriously of making peace. 

The United States were very willing to end 
the war, for no matter how many victories they 
might win, their commerce was being destroyed 
and their trade ruined. 

Commissioners were sent from England and 
the United States to Belgium, to decide upon 
conditions of peace, and on December 24, 18 14, 



142 THE WAR OF l8l2. 

a treaty was agreed upon and signed in the 
city of Ghent. 

But although the chief cause of the war was 
the disrespect which England had shown the 
American flag, and her absurd claim to search 
American vessels for English seamen, not a 
word of this was mentioned in the treaty, and, 
as far as the articles of peace were concerned, 
British men-of-war might still have continued 
to run down United States war vessels and im- 
prison their crews. 

But the United States were no longer afraid 
of this, and both countries were eager for peace 
on any terms, and the treaty was signed with 
the understanding that the causes that led to 
the war had disappeared forever. 

The news of the treaty of Ghent was re- 
ceived with great rejoicing both in England and 
America. In the United States bells were rung 
and cannon fired, and the next day after it be- 
came known that peace was declared, the docks 
were full of busy workmen, and the sound of 
the saw and hammer was ringing through the 
air, while the long-unused shipping in the New 



THE WAR OF l8l2. 143 

England ports was decorated with flags and 
streamers, and the lamps in the light-houses 
were once more prepared for use. 

But news travelled slowly in those days, 
when the railroad and telegraph were yet un- 
known, and even after the treaty of Ghent there 
was a great battle fought in the South, where 
the tidings of peace had not yet been received. 

A force of twelve thousand British under- 
took the capture of New Orleans, which was 
defended by General Jackson. 

Jackson threw up intrenchments of earth 
and cotton bales, but the cotton catching fire 
from the cannon-balls, had to be removed, so 
that the Americans had for their defence only a 
bank of earth five feet high and a shallow ditch. 
The English veterans came on in splendid or- 
der, their solid columns never wavering under 
the artillery fire which was poured into their 
ranks ; but when they came within shot of the 
Kentucky and Tennessee riflemen — the finest 
marksmen in the world — their lines were broken. 
The officers tried to rally them, but without suc- 
cess, and the battle of New Orleans ended with 



144 THE WAR OF l8l2. 

a loss of over two thousand for the British, 
while the Americans had only seven killed and 
six wounded. 

But the war was over, and the British de- 
feat was lost sight of in the general rejoicing. 

The struggle had cost thirty thousand lives 
and a million of dollars ; but it had shown to 
the world that America was able to battle suc- 
cessfully with the greatest maritime power of 
modern times, and that she was prepared to 
enforce that respect for her flag which she con- 
sidered her due. Besides this, the question of 
American independence was finally settled, and 
England gave up forever any hope she might 
have had that foreign power or domestic quar- 
rel would ever bring back her lost colonies to 
her crown. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. 

From the time that De Leon had first wandered 
through the forests of Florida in search of the 
fountain of eternal youth, the Spanish crown had 
looked upon this beautiful country as a lawful 
possession, claiming that the right of discovery 
and settlement belonged to Spain alone. 

With this thought in mind, the Huguenots 
on the St. John's were massacred by a Spanish 
officer, and although this crime met with fear- 
ful vengeance at the hands of De Gourgues, 
the Spaniards, only a few years afterward, had 
so recovered from this blow that Spanish mis- 
sions were established all along the Florida 
coast, and Spanish priests were traversing the 
forests in the vain attempt to convert the Indi- 
ans to Christianity. 

But the natives of Florida held the Spaniards 



146 THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. 

in hatred and distrust, and but few converts 
were made. 

St. Augustine, however, continued to grow, 
and although when it was found that Florida 
did not yield the riches that might be found in 
New Mexico and on the Spanish Main, few col- 
onists came, yet in twenty years the town boast- 
ed several hundred inhabitants, a hall of justice, 
a church, and a monastery. 

But this progress was stopped by the arrival 
of the English commander Sir Francis Drake, 
who had been on a freebooting expedition 
against the Spanish settlements in the West In- 
dies. Drake sailed into the harbor of St. Au- 
gustine, and landing at the nearest point plant- 
ed a cannon and sent a ball flying through the 
royal standard of Spain that waved over the 
fort. 

The Spaniards, supposing that the whole 
English force was about to attack them, left the 
fort in the night, and the next day Drake pil- 
laged and burned the town, capturing treasure 
to the amount of ten thousand dollars. He 
then sailed away again, and the Spanish gov- 



THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. 147 

ernor returned to St. Augustine and began re- 
building the city. But although more mission- 
aries were sent from Spain, and many efforts 
were made to help the new colony in her strug- 
gle for life, nearly a hundred years passed be- 
fore St. Augustine had grown to be a town of 
three hundred people. For another hundred 
years the Spanish settlements in Florida were 
harassed by the Indians at home and the Eng- 
lish settlers from farther up the coast, and the 
English freebooters, who were liable at any 
time to descend upon the Spaniards with fire 
and sword. 

The Spaniards retaliated by entering Eng- 
lish settlements, burning and pillaging, and in- 
citing the Indians against their foes, and as 
there was constant trouble between Spain and 
England, their colonies in America thought they 
could only be patriotic by keeping the quarrel 
up as long as possible. 

At length regular war was declared between 
the English settlers in Georgia and the Spanish 
in Florida, and a large English force was de- 
spatched to attack St. Augustine by sea and 



148 THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. 

land. And although this expedition was unsuc- 
cessful, yet, when a year later the Spanish fleet 
appeared off the Georgia coast, the English 
were able by threats and intrigues to so dis- 
courage the commander that he made no at- 
tack, and the entire force retired to Cuba and 
St. Augustine. After this St. Augustine was 
captured by the English colonists, and finally, in 
1763, by a treaty made at Paris between Spain 
and England, Florida was ceded to Great Brit- 
ain, and became an English colony. 

At this time the city of St. Augustine con- 
tained about three thousand inhabitants. It was 
about three-quarters of a mile in length and a 
quarter of a mile in width, and was surrounded 
with fortifications. The houses were built of 
stone, and their entrances shaded by piazzas 
resting upon rows of graceful pillars. Before 
the entrances were arbors covered with vines 
which bore quantities of luscious grapes, and 
the gardens were stocked with fruit-trees, figs, 
guavas, plantains, pomegranates, lemons, limes, 
citrons, and oranges, as well as the hardier fruits 
of the North, growing in the greatest abundance. 



THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. 149 

There were four churches, and the gover- 
nor's residence was a very fine and imposing 
building. 

At the north end of the town was the castle, 
over which the flag of Spain had floated for one 
hundred and ninety years ; it was built of quar- 
ried stone, and afforded a strong position for a 
besieged garrison. 

In the cool season all the houses were 
warmed by stone urns filled with hot coals, 
chimneys and fireplaces being unknown. 

The climate was mild and the city healthful, 
being kept free from disease by the pure sea- 
breezes which swept in from the bay, while the 
surrounding country, with its vineyards, or- 
chards, and groves, and its fields of sugar-cane, 
cotton, rice, and indigo, formed a source of 
wealth and commerce which made the situation 
of the city upon such a safe and convenient 
harbor a matter of great gain. 

The Spanish inhabitants of St. Augustine 
were indignant when they received the news of 
the treaty of Paris. They considered that their 
rights had been slighted by the Spanish crown, 



150 THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. 

and refused to look upon the English as any- 
thing but enemies. Preparations were at once 
made for a general departure to Havana and the 
West Indies and Mexico. 

So bitter was the feeling against the English 
that the governor of the city destroyed his beau- 
tiful garden before going away, and had it not 
been for the ceaseless efforts of the command- 
ing - officer not a house or building would have 
been left standing in St. Augustine. It is said 
that only five Spaniards remained in the city 
after its occupation by the English. 

The government of Great Britain at once 
made generous offers to emigrants who would 
go to Florida, and the new colony soon became 
very prosperous. 

During the American Revolution there was 
constant trouble between the loyalists of Flor- 
ida and the patriots of the southern colonies, 
and as there was war in Europe at the same 
time between France and Spain on one side, 
and England on the other, it was for many 
years undecided what would finally become of 
the British colonies in America. 



THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. 151 

But the treaty of Paris, in 1783, by which 
the independence of the United States was 
acknowledged, also brought the troubles in 
Europe to an end. By this treaty Great Brit- 
ain restored Florida to Spain, receiving in re- 
turn the Bahama Islands, which have since 
become so important to the English crown. 

During the English occupation Florida had 
grown wealthy and prosperous, and the Eng- 
lish inhabitants were very unwilling to give up 
the pleasant homes which they had striven so 
hard to gain. But their wishes were not con- 
sidered, and as the new Spanish governor only 
allowed them a few weeks for their departure, 
there was no time for regret. 

Just as their government had driven the 
Acadians from their lands, and forced them to 
seek homes among strangers, so now the Eng- 
lish in Florida were obliged to leave their com- 
fortable homes, in the midst of their sugar plan- 
tations and groves of oranges, lemons, figs, and 
pineapples, and look for new dwelling-places. 
Some of them went to the Bahamas, and some 
sought new homes among the Americans in 



152 THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. 

Georgia, who were willing to forget old differ- 
ences, and stretch out helping hands to the 
homeless outcasts. And with this act of injus- 
tice Spanish rule was again inaugurated in Flor- 
ida. 

But the following years proved that a Span- 
ish colony on the Atlantic coast was a very bad 
thing for all parties concerned. From the be- 
ginning of slavery runaway negroes had looked 
upon the Everglades of Florida as a place of 
refuge, where they would be secure from their 
masters' blood-hounds, and sure of a welcome 
from the sympathizing Indians. 

Marriages had taken place between the two 
races, and the Seminoles of Florida and the ne- 
groes of Georgia and the Carolinas were bound 
together by the closest ties. 

Every year larger numbers of slaves tried to 
escape from bondage, and enjoy the wild, free life 
of the Florida forests, and with each new loss 
the plantation-owners vowed that they would 
stand it no longer. 

From time to time large parties of whites 
were organized to hunt runaway slaves, and 



THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. 1 53 

every Indian outrage was looked upon as a 
fresh reason for scouring Florida from ocean to 
Gulf in search of fugitive negroes. 

The Indians, keeping in mind the treatment 
that they themselves had received from the 
whites, were loyal to the poor runaways, refus- 
ing to give intelligence of their whereabouts, 
and always helping to defend their hiding-places 
with their lives. 

The swamps and morasses of Florida fur- 
nished the safest retreat that the slave was ever 
able to find. 

The blood-hound lost the scent when the 
pursuit led across water, and no white man 
knew the clue by which the flying negro was 
able to thread the impenetrable jungle, and find 
his dwelling in the dark thickets of the Ever- 
glades. 

Sometimes for weeks the slave would lie 
hidden in the tangled underbrush of some little 
island, depending for food upon the brave ef- 
forts of the kindly Indians, who would creep 
through the forest in the darkness, while the 
pursuers lay watching a little way off, quite un- 



154 THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. 

conscious that their prey was so near them ; and 
often what the white man mistook for the moss- 
hung, waving branches of the cypress, would be 
the shadow of the avenging warrior with his 
arrow aimed at the heart of the hated man- 
hunter. 

And then too, the Indians never lost a 
chance to retaliate for the wrongs they had re- 
ceived from the whites, and thus the settlers 
were never free from the hostility of their Span- 
ish and Indian neighbors. 

When war again broke out between the 
United States and Great Britain, Florida was 
the scene of a fierce border warfare, carried on 
by the Indians, who were furnished with arms, 
and in some instances led, by English officers. 
In this war Spain professed to be neutral, but it 
was well known that the Spaniards of Florida 
were in sympathy with the English, and allowed 
forts to be built and garrisoned by English sol- 
diers, assisted by Indians and runaway slaves. 

The United States considered that Spain 
was responsible for the bad faith of her colony 
in allowing English forts to be built on Spanish 



THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. 1 55 

soil, and they did not hesitate to carry the war 
into Florida. 

But even after the treaty of Ghent the 
Americans still thought they had good cause for 
complaint against Spain, as Florida remained a 
refuge for the runaway slaves, and the Indians 
continued to commit outrages against the whites. 

American troops were sent again and again 
against the Seminoles, who would not break 
friendship with the negroes, and massacres and 
pillaging became more and more frequent. 

South Carolina and Georgia, which suffered 
more than the other States from the loss of 
slaves, urged the Government to subdue the 
Seminoles, and make them return the runaway 
negroes ; and as the plantation-owners kept 
complaining bitterly against losing their prop- 
erty, and claimed that America would not 
really be a free country unless they were al- 
lowed to keep their slaves, the United States 
at last entered upon open war with Spain, by 
invading Florida and besieging all forts and vil- 
lages where Seminoles and negroes were col- 
lected. 



156 THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. 



The chief American officer in this invasion 
was General Jackson, who would have liked 
nothing; better than to take Florida at the point 
of the sword and hand it over to the United 
States, for as time passed, and the trouble only- 
increased, it came to be generally believed that 
the only way to settle the difficulty would be to 
add Florida to the American Union. 

Jackson marched through the peninsula 
with fire and sword, doing many things that 
were not approved of by the United States 
Government, and carrying terror and dismay 
into the hearts of the enemy. He hauled down 
the Spanish flags and raised the stars and stripes 
above the forts, captured and hanged two of 
the principal Seminole chiefs, court-martialled 
and shot some English subjects, and declared 
that if his Government would only give him 
permission, he would rob Spain of Florida in 
sixty days. 

The United States were in a fair way of be- 
coming involved in a war not only with Spain, 
but with England also, and it became evident 
that a peace must be determined upon. 



THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. I 57 

Spain was not unwilling to get rid of a col- 
ony that had always been a source of trouble 
and expense, and, after some months of nego- 
tiation, it was agreed in February, 1819, that 
Florida should be ceded to the United States 
for the sum of five million dollars. 

By this treaty the southwestern boundary of 
the United States was clearly defined. Before 
this there had been a misunderstanding as to 
what territory should be included within the 
limits of Louisiana, but it was agreed by the 
purchase of Florida that the United States 
should be bounded on the south and west by 
the Sabine and Red Rivers, and the head-waters 
of the Arkansas and Platte, including on the 
Pacific Coast what is now known as Oregon 
and Washington. 

Thus in less than forty years the American 
Republic had extended her possessions to the 
Gulf and the Pacific, and exceeded in territory 
some of the mightiest nations of Europe ; while 
France and Spain, that had once considered the 
New World as belonging entirely to themselves, 
now saw its fairest portion in the hands of the 



158 THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. 

race that had come to it, not for conquest or 
gold or glory, but for the sake of the freedom 
that was denied at home, and that brought with 
it that spirit of liberty and justice which alone 
can enable a nation to build wisely and nobly. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 

In the year 1619, in the month of August, a 
Dutch trading vessel entered the James River 
and sailed up the stream to Jamestown. On 
either side the river stretched fair meadows and 
green trees, and the whole land was beautiful 
with summer, but to the eyes that looked wear- 
ily out from the port-holes of the ship, the place 
only seemed dreary and desolate, a land of exile 
and death. 

The vessel had been sailing the Atlantic for 
months, carrying on board a band of prison- 
ers kidnapped on the coast of Africa ; and as 
she came to in the harbor of Jamestown, and 
the dark captives were ordered up on deck, 
their looks showed their weary confinement, 
and their eyes were dull with despair. But the 
captain cared little for their looks or feelings ; 



l6o THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 

he had bought them for gold, and was only- 
desirous of getting his money back and as 
much more as possible. 

So the Africans were landed and offered for 
sale. They had been stolen from their homes, 
carried like dumb beasts across the Atlantic, 
and were now to pass into life-long bondage, 
all because the white man chose to use his 
greater intelligence to oppress instead of be- 
friend them. 

The Virginia planters had hitherto depend- 
ed for servants upon English and German emi- 
grants, who sold themselves for a certain length 
of time — for so many months or years — receiv- 
ing in return a specified sum of money. 

But it seemed a much easier plan to buy 
these poor negroes once for all, and the little 
band of twenty was soon disposed of, passing 
into the hands of the highest bidders. 

Fifty years before the discovery of America, 
African slavery had been introduced into Eu- 
rope by Spanish and Portuguese navigators. 
So that at the time of the landing of the first 
slaves at Jamestown, Africa had been for nearly 




FUGITIVE SLAVES. 



THE STORY OF SLAVERY. l6l 

two hundred years the great hunting-ground 
where the white races tracked down and merci- 
lessly captured the ignorant and despised ne- 
groes. 

Dreadful tales of outrage and cruelty were 
told from time to time in Europe in connection 
with these degrading slave-hunts, but except 
among a few people, little heed was given to 
them. 

The slave-trade flourished, kings and queens 
and statesmen giving it their support, and when 
it was found that the English colonies in Amer- 
ica would pay good prices for these poor creat- 
ures, great companies were formed to carry on 
the business of slave-stealing and slave-sell- 
ing, and strict laws were passed for the pro- 
tection of the men engaged in this inhuman 
traffic. 

The Royal African Company of Great Brit- 
ain was one of the most powerful agents for 
supplying America with slaves, the British Gov- 
ernment protecting the company with all its 
great power, and the queen herself owning one- 
fourth of the stock. 



1 62 THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 

For more than a century slaves were brought 
by hundreds to the Southern colonies, the num- 
ber at last amounting to more than three hun- 
dred thousand. And when the colonists be- 
came alarmed at such an increase of negro 
population, and wished to impose a tax on the 
importation of slaves, the British Government 
refused to allow it, and threatened to remove 
the colonial governors if they did not uphold 
slavery. 

And so, under the protection of a great na- 
tion that called itself Christian and humane, 
the slave-trade increased from year to year, and 
the Royal African Company grew rich with the 
profits that came to it from selling human be- 
ings into a bondage more cruel than any the 
world had ever yet seen. 

Ship after ship crossed the Atlantic, carry- 
ing cargoes of the miserable Africans who had 
been stolen from their homes, and all through 
the South the work was done entirely by these 
negroes, who for their long days of toil reaped 
no reward other than the food and clothing 
which the master gave, only because without 



THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 163 

them his black bondsmen would have been use- 
less to him. 

For any need of the slave, outside his daily- 
allowance of bread, the master had no ear to 
hear, and the cruelties of the African slave-hunt 
were too often repeated on the plantations of 
the Southern colonists. 

In Africa white men often witnessed scenes 
of the utmost brutality without raising a hand 
against it. The whole interior of the continent 
was given up to slave-hunting, the stronger 
and more intelligent tribes, becoming slave- 
hunters, and warring upon weaker tribes for 
the sole purpose of making captives and selling 
them to the bands living along the coast, who, 
in turn, disposed of them to the British and 
other governments, or sometimes to private in- 
dividuals who carried on the slave-trade se- 
cretly. 

These constant wars kept the whole country 
in a state of bloodshed, and sometimes entire 
tribes were destroyed in fighting for their homes. 
No matter how peaceable a tribe might be, it 
was driven to be constantly prepared for war, 



164 THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 

and on the watch for the foe, who might come 
upon them at any moment to bear their wives 
and children off to captivity and death. 

For the poor captives were so cruelly treated 
as they were carried off to the sea-shore that 
many of them died on the way, and the roads 
between the different slave-stations along which 
the great caravans of slaves passed were always 
easily distinguishable by the bones of the unfort- 
unate victims lying in heaps by the wayside. 

No man was safe half a mile from his home, 
for the man-stealers lay ever in wait to catch 
the unwary negro, and bear him across the 
ocean. 

In the great hunts that were held regularly, 
whole families and tribes were captured, and 
marched down in gangs to the sea, where they 
were driven on board the vessels with small re- 
gard to their relationship, fathers, mothers and 
children being separated from one another, and 
sent to places so far apart that they never saw 
one another again. For from Maine to Mexico 
the slave could find a market, and through the 
length and breadth of the English colonies in 



THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 165 

America might be seen the picture of the de- 
spised African wearily bending to a toil made 
unendurable by the overseer's lash, and the 
thought that any day or hour might separate 
him forever from those he held dearest on 
earth. 

But although slavery was allowed all over 
the colonies, it never was carried on to any 
great extent in New England or the Middle 
States. This was chiefly owing to the fact that 
slave-labor was more valuable on the Southern 
plantations than anywhere else. 

The North owed its wealth to its manufact- 
ures, fishing-trade, and commerce, all of which 
needed intelligent and skilled workmen ; but on 
the great plantations in the South, where rice, 
tobacco, cotton, and sugar were raised in such 
quantities as to command the trade of the world, 
slave-labor could be better used than any other. 

The climate of the South, especially of Lou- 
isiana and the Gulf States, was such that it was 
almost an impossibility for the white man to 
work in the fields, and therefore, if the soil was 
to be cultivated, it must be done by the ne- 



1 66 THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 

groes, who were better able to stand the 
scorching suns and withering heats and un- 
wholesome miasmas of a tropical region. 

For this reason the Q-rowth of the South de- 
pended largely upon the number and intelli- 
gence of the slaves, and a man's wealth was 
reckoned as much by the negroes he owned as 
by his rice-helds or cotton-plantations. 

Great attention was paid to the raising of 
strong, healthy negroes, as these always brought 
a better price in market ; and as the years 
passed, it was found that America produced so 
many slaves of her own, and public opinion 
grew so strong against importing negroes, that 
the foreign slave-trade ceased except where it 
was carried on by smuggling. But slaves were 
still bought and sold in America, going from 
plantation to plantation, village to village, and 
State to State, never a day passing that did not 
see, somewhere, families broken up and friends 
separated forever. 

The new generations of slaves that grew up 
on the plantations knew of no other life, and in 
many cases were merry and contented, fearing 



THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 167 

nothing- but the overseer's lash and the auction- 
block ; and as it often happened that the master 
treated his negroes kindly, and allowed the 
members of a family to remain together, the 
lively song and happy laugh might be heard in 
the fields from morning till night, and the plan- 
tations seem abodes of peace and happiness. 

But in most places this was far different. 
The older slaves remembered dimly the stories 
of their youth and of the days when their race 
was free and independent, owning authority to 
no man. And they recalled the descriptions 
they had so often listened to of the greatness of 
some ancestor who had been torn from his 
principality in Africa, where he was king over 
tribes, and lands, and cattle, and brought to 
America and sold like a dog or horse from man 
to man, until his spirit had broken and he had 
died of homesickness and longing. 

And then, too, there were yet darker stories 
of life in America. Of cruel beatings, of brand- 
ings with hot irons, of helpless women and 
children lashed together and driven foot-sore 
over miles of country, while the whip flew over 



1 68 THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 

their naked flesh if they lagged behind ; and 
other acts so brutal, so cowardly, so unworthy 
a civilized land, that they cannot be even men- 
tioned. 

The slaves were beaten like dogs, sold like 
cattle, and treated in all respects like brutes by 
the very class that boasted itself as the chivalry 
of America. 

And all this time America was growing rich 
and great, and the Declaration of Independence 
had asserted that all men were created free and 
equal. And when a few great men wished to 
claim from this, freedom for the slave, it was re- 
plied that slaves were not men, and in some 
States, in reckoning the population, three slaves 
were counted as one white man. 

Three of America's greatest men, Washing- 
ton, Franklin, and Jefferson, denounced slavery, 
and held it to be the blackest of crimes, and as 
time went on the people of the North grew to 
dislike it more and more, and gradually it came 
to be abolished in the Middle States and New 
England, and societies were formed and peti- 
tions offered for its suppression. 



THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 169 

And thus the slave came to look upon the 
North as a land of freedom, and all through 
the Northern States there grew up a gener- 
ation hating slavery, and the disgrace that it 
brought upon their country. 

But among the Southern States slavery was 
still looked upon as the source of all their wealth, 
and the slave-owners fiercely resented any op- 
position to it. 

They kept the negroes in the greatest igno- 
rance, making it a crime for any one to teach 
them to read and write ; they hired preachers 
who quoted Scripture' to prove that slavery was 
of divine origin, and they boasted that the slaves 
were much better off and far happier than they 
would be free. They even said that the negro 
was incapable of feeling, and judging what was 
right or wrong, and that if freedom were offered 
him he would not understand what it meant ; 
but as at the same time the plantation-owners 
dreaded nothing so much as a negro insurrec- 
tion, and kept blood-hounds always trained to 
scent runaway slaves, their talk amounted to 
very little, and it was evident that they feared 



170 THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 

the vengeance of the oppressed race and the 
loss of their property only too much. 

But the Africans are a race unrevengeful and 
slow to anger, and for centuries they endured 
wrongs that would have driven any other people 
to the deadliest revenge. A master who treated 
them in any way kindly was sure of their affec- 
tion and gratitude, and such was their tender- 
ness and loyalty toward those owners who had 
shown them kindness, that if misfortune came, 
the slave was often found among the master's 
firmest friends. 

Ignorant and degraded by life-long cruelties 
the master's word was their only law, and they 
gave him faithful and often loving service for the 
poor food and scanty clothing that were their 
only reward. 

But among this oppressed nation there were 
some men more serious and thoughtful than the 
rest, and they studied over the wrongs of their 
people, and measured the master's words by 
the acts that followed, and saw much that 
might have puzzled wiser heads than theirs. 
They, too, listened to the eloquent preacher who 



THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 171 

tried so hard to convince them that slavery was 
ordained by God, and that the negro on the 
Southern plantation was far happier than the 
poor white man toiling for his daily bread up 
among the New England hills. 

But when the meeting was over, and preach- 
er and people were met at the door by a pro- 
cession of sad-faced men and women, bare- 
headed, half-clothed, without shoes and stock- 
ings, chained together by an ox-chain, and 
followed by a man with pistols in his belt, and a 
whip in his hand, then it seemed that the words 
they had been listening to were false instead of 
true, and that it was never meant that men and 
women should be driven in chains like wild 
beasts. 

In every city and village of the South such 
scenes were common, and often others far worse 
shocked the eye of the humane spectator. 
Carts passed along the highways filled with half- 
naked children, while women and girls followed 
behind with the blood streaming from the lashes 
they had received when weariness made them 
drop down by the way-side. And in the great 



172 THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 

slave depots, where large and regular sales 
were held, the thumb-screws, gags, chains, and 
whips, which covered the walls, all told what 
means were used to keep the helpless victim in 
subjection. 

But in spite of these inhuman cruelties, the 
slave seldom attempted revenge. And that the 
master was constantly dreading this, and gave 
it as his excuse for keeping the negro in igno- 
rance, shows that his conscience was far from 
easy, and that he well knew that his treatment 
of the slave was unworthy of one who possessed 
any feelings of humanity. 

All during the days of slavery the planta- 
tion owners were in constant dread of an upris- 
ing amonsf the blacks, knowing well if it ever 
came that the wrongs that called for vengeance 
were many and deep. And they particularly 
dreaded the presence of the few colored men 
who had learned to read and write, and were 
capable of gaining their own opinions from the 
words of the Bible, and the Declaration of In- 
dependence, and the books and newspapers 
that might fall into their hands. 



THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 1 73 

And they could do nothing to make the 
slave believe that slavery was the best thing for 
him. In spite of kindness or unkindness, pres- 
ents or blows, kicks, cuffs, whippings, and fre- 
quent murders, the negroes still returned to 
their songs of the good days that were coming, 
and chanted the old refrains, which were a mix- 
ture of Bible-songs of deliverance and their 
own half-heathen melodies, and looked forward 
to the days when a free country would mean 
freedom for the black man as well as for the 
white. 

And as the number of slaves increased, and 
each generation gained in intelligence, the love 
of freedom grew stronger. After slavery had 
ceased in the North, runaway slaves became 
more and more an object of interest to the 
slave-holding States and the free States alike. 

The South bitterly denounced the North for 
receiving and harboring fugitive negroes, but so 
great was the sympathy felt for these unfortu- 
nates in the free States, that many men and 
women devoted their fortunes and lives to help 
them escape to New England and Canada. In 



174 THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 

Pennsylvania the Quakers were long known as 
the staunchest friends of the slaves, and many 
a poor negro flying from his master's blood- 
hounds was helped on his way by these same 
kindly folk who were scattered through Mary- 
land and Virginia, and gladly lent their aid in 
sending him on to friends in Pennsylvania. 

Sometimes it happened that an escaped 
slave would be able, after years of labor, to 
save enough to buy his wife and children from 
their master, and then the reunited family would 
live happily together in the North. And once in 
a while a kind master would liberate a favorite 
slave, or leave him his freedom in his will, and 
then as the slaves were often intelligent and 
very useful on the plantations, the freedman 
would earn good wages and be able to buy his 
family's freedom before starting for the North. 

But not every runaway slave was able to 
reach the land of his desire. Many and many 
a one was tracked by blood-hounds to his hid- 
ing-place in some marsh or swamp, and brought 
forth to die a horrible death, or have his body 
mutilated with the most fearful tortures. 



THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 175 

But this did not keep back others when 
their opportunity came, and so many slaves 
kept escaping to the Everglades of Florida, and 
the swamps of Virginia, and the hills of New 
England, that the plantation owners continually 
suffered heavy losses, and began to hate the 
North for helping the runaway slaves, and to 
devise means of making slavery a greater power 
than ever. 

But the people of the North had long since 
risen to the height of declaring that a man was 
a man, black or white, and that to degrade him 
to the level of a beast was uncivilized and un- 
christian. 

And as the West grew up, and new States 
and Territories were made, the question of slav- 
ery was always the most important one dis- 
cussed. 

The purchase of Louisiana and Florida had 
given an enormous increase of power to the 
slave States, and as the population of the South 
increased, the Northern States saw that if slav- 
ery was allowed to extend much farther, all 
the affairs of the Government would fall into 



176 THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 

the hands of the slave-owners, and the laws 
of the land be made by them with small regard 
to what the people of the North might wish. 

And so with the admission of nearly every 
new State fierce struggles took place as to 
whether slavery should be allowed in its bor- 
ders. 

This feeling between the North and the 
South was at its height when the territory of 
Missouri applied for admission into the Union. 
This territory was a part of the Louisiana pur- 
chase, and the Southern States had no inten- 
tion of allowing it to enter the Union as a free 
State. 

But the Northern States, on the contrary, 
felt that they had too long submitted to the 
South in its demand for the increase of slavery, 
and they decided that the time had come when 
this important question should be settled. 

Never before had there been such excite- 
ment produced by the application of a State for 
admission into the Union. 

All over the North public meetings were 
held, and petitions were sent to Congress, and 



THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 177 

all the great Northern statesmen united to put 
an end to any further extension of slavery. 

Many slave-owners in the South had often 
said that they did not approve of slavery, and 
regretted that their forefathers had ever found- 
ed such an institution ; and they were now re- 
minded by the people of the North that the 
time had come when they might show their dis- 
like to the system by helping to prevent its 
further growth. 

But it was soon found that those who pro- 
fessed to dislike it were as eager as the others 
to have Missouri a slave State, and the South 
threatened the most fearful consequences — 
bloodshed and war, and the breaking up of 
the Union — if Missouri was admitted as a free 
State. 

But the North stood firm, and professed its 
willingness to endure all consequences that 
might follow, and as the South was equally 
firm, it was found that the only way that the 
question could be settled would be by each side 
yielding a little to the other, for the North 
found it was not strong enough to force the 



178 THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 

South, and the South discovered that although 
its influence had hitherto been so powerful that 
it had done as it pleased in every question 
with regard to slavery, yet now it had reached 
its limit, and the North would no longer submit 
tamely to any laws the slave-holders might 
choose to enact. 

A compromise was therefore effected be- 
tween the two parties ; and although Missouri 
was admitted as a slave State, it was solemnly 
agreed that slavery should never be allowed in 
any other State west of the Mississippi or north 
of the southern boundary of Missouri. 

This act was called the Missouri Compro- 
mise, and by it both sides claimed a victory. 

Missouri was indeed a slave State, but, on 
the other hand, slavery had received the dead- 
liest blow that had ever yet been dealt it. 

The bill passed in 1820, and Missouri came 
into the Union the next year. 

But the question of slavery was not to be 
settled for many a long year to come. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 

When the ancient tribes of Asia used to move 
from place to place in search of pasture and 
wells of water for their flocks, their travelling 
was done for the most part on foot, only the 
women and children, as a general thing, being 
allowed to ride on the backs of the camels or 
horses; and in those days a journey was a thing 
of great importance, and the preparations for it 
often extended through many months. 

The time of the year, the condition of the 
cattle, the presence of robber bands ready to 
plunder the moving tribe, all had to be consid- 
ered ; and when at last all was ready, and the 
caravan fairly on its way, its movements were 
as leisurely and calm as if the journey was to 
take a whole lifetime and there was no need for 
anyone to hurry. 



1 80 THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 

Later on, when the different peoples of the 
earth had Qathered themselves into villages and 
cities and nations, and had learned to regard 
one another with feelings of friendship or en- 
mity, as "the case might be, the necessity for 
easy and safe modes of travelling became very 
great. 

Trade was established between friendly na- 
tions, and war was constantly being waged be- 
tween nations hostile to each other, and from 
both these reasons travelling grew into an art, 
and was considered as much a part of civilized 
life as anything else could be. 

In the valleys and plains of Asia, where 
trade was carried on chiefly by means of the 
great rivers and canals, the cities held easy 
communication with one another and with the 
cities of the coast, and the purple cloth of Tyre 
found its way into kings' houses afar off, and 
the giant cedars of Lebanon floated down the 
widening tides to form pillars and thrones in 
the royal palaces of alien people. 

But as empires grew, and the earth became 
rilled with inhabitants, and the knowledge of 










! 







AN EARLY RAILROAD 



THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. l8l 

distant countries became more common, when 
man had outgrown the simple needs of the 
early races, and had learned to clothe himself 
in costly garments and surround himself with 
beauty and luxury of every kind, then the whole 
earth seemed to him only large enough to sup- 
ply his wants. 

He must have silken robes from China, 
costly perfumes from Arabia, pearls from the 
sea, gold and diamonds from India, luxurious 
rugs from Persia, ivory from Africa, and fair- 
haired slaves from the barbarous tribes of the 
West. 

Every great empire built expensive roads, 
which met those of other empires, and rivers 
were bridged, valleys filled, hills levelled, moun- 
tains tunnelled, and deserts crossed, to bring 
to kings and nobles the luxuries they found it 
impossible to do without. 

Various ways of travelling found favor with 
the different merchants and traders who made 
up the great caravans that constantly moved 
from country to country ; but, excepting the jour- 
neys by water, all travel was performed on foot 



1 82 THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 

or on the back of some animal, and for thou- 
sands of years this was the only way in which 
man journeyed from place to place. 

If he wished to imagine any faster mode of 
travel, he would speak of the early days of his 
race, when kind genii or the friendly wings of 
the roc would bear man swiftly through the 
clouds to his desired haven; but, excepting 
these fables and the half-believed stories of the 
winged beings of old, mankind had no idea 
of any other means of travel than had been his 
from the earliest ages. 

Camels, elephants, and horses still con- 
tinued to carry travellers across mountains and 
deserts, and vessels with gilded prows and 
silken sails still carried kings on their journeys 
on the water, long after the world had far ad- 
vanced in learning and art of every kind. 

The great empires of antiquity gave place to 
greater ones, barbarous tribes became civilized 
and were incorporated into mighty kingdoms, 
the ocean was crossed, America discovered and 
settled, and the United States formed into a 
nation, while the world still kept to the sim- 



THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 1 83 

plest modes of travelling, and seemed to think 
that anything better was impossible, and was 
quite ready to laugh at any visionary inventor 
who undertook to show that people might be 
carried from place to place faster than a horse 
could run. 

But the discovery that steam might be used 
as a means of moving machinery changed the 
ideas of man entirely, and made all kinds of 
unheard-of things seem at once possible. The 
steamboat was invented, and completely revolu- 
tionized ocean and river travel, and less than 
twenty years later an event occurred in Eng- 
land of even greater importance. This was the 
formal opening of the Manchester and Liverpool 
railroad, which took place September 15, 1830. 

The inventor of the locomotive, a Northum- 
brian coal-digger by the name of George 
Stephenson, had very early in life given signs 
of his great inventive genius. Through years 
of poverty and hardship, and disappointment of 
every kind, he slowly made a name for himself 
as one who would be likely to claim great honor 
for some wonderful invention. But this faith in 



1 84 THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 

his powers was not shared by those who would 
have been able to help him with money and in- 
fluence, and for years he had to struggle amid 
the disheartening surroundings of poverty and 
obscurity. 

But at last, with his heart full of hope and 
his brain full of a great plan, he appeared be- 
fore the House of Commons, and proposed to 
build a railroad from Manchester to Liverpool. 

The members of Parliament were wise in their 
own way, and considered themselves well quali- 
fied to judge of the merit of Stephenson's plans ; 
but, like many other wise men before and since, 
they thought that the world was doing well 
enough without troubling themselves with new 
inventions. Old ways seemed to them best, as 
they certainly were easiest, and they listened to 
the young engineer with little interest and no 
faith whatever. 

They thought it very presumptuous in Ste- 
phenson to put his wisdom before that of the 
law-makers of the British nation, and, after a 
few questions which he could not answer (for, 
unlike them, he knew a great deal more than he 



THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 1 85 

was able to express in words), they dismissed 
him as an idle dreamer, and took great comfort 
in the thought that the road from Manchester 
to Liverpool would still be traversed by the 
respectable stage-coach of their great-grand- 
fathers, and that they would never more be 
bothered by visionary inventors with plans for 
whisking people from place to place at a rate 
that was undignified as well as perilous. 

But Stephenson was not to be discouraged 
by any number of wise members of Parliament. 

When they had asked him how he would 
tunnel through rock, build embankments, and 
cross miles of bottomless swamp, he had an- 
swered : " I can't tell you how I'll do it, but I 
can tell you I will do it." And his faith in him- 
self never faltered, though his inability to ex- 
plain his plans lost him the most powerful in- 
fluence he could have had. 

But the merchants of Liverpool saw at once 
what great gain such a road as Stephenson's 
would be to their trade, and that the success 
of even a small road would lead to the build- 
ing of railroads all over the world, and thus im- 



1 86 THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 

mensely increase commerce and their chance of 
wealth. 

They listened with the utmost respect to 
this quiet man whose plans seemed to have so 
much of the marvellous in them, and in the end 
subscribed money for building the road. 

In December, 1826, the first spade was 
stuck into the ground, and from that time work 
went steadily on. Stephenson had none of 
the appliances of modern engineers for blasting 
rocks, boring tunnels, constructing bridges, and 
sinking piles into marshy ground ; but he per- 
severed, and found a way to overcome all diffi- 
culties, and in four years the road was completed. 

Although a trial trip was made in August, 
the public opening of the road did not take 
place until September. 

The Duke of Wellington, who was then 
Prime Minister, and several of the nobility, with 
about nine hundred other guests, were invited to 
take part in the ceremony, and so intense was 
the excitement in Manchester and Liverpool and 
the towns along the route that fears of a riot 
were entertained. For the laboring classes of 



THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 1 87 

England hated new ideas almost as much as the 
learned members of Parliament, and this strange 
and unlawful use of steam seemed to them only 
the beginning of the worst evils that could befall 
their class. 

In the manufacturing districts the poor were 
already suffering from want of work and the 
scantiest wages, and they supposed that every 
new invention which enabled work to be per- 
formed by machinery, instead of by men's hands, 
could only lead to greater distress and more 
cruel injustice. 

And so from the beo-inning- the railroad had 
to fight its way among enemies of all kinds ; 
among the rich, who cared little for benefiting 
the race so long as they themselves were com- 
fortable, and among the poor, who, misunder- 
standing its purpose, would gladly have torn the 
rails from their places and smashed the "engines 
-into fragments, if the fear of the law had not 
restrained them. 

The Duke of Wellington was extremely un- 
popular with the laboring classes, owing to his 
unwillingness to listen to any suggestions of 



THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 



reform, and it was feared that his presence 
among the guests would incite the mob to open 
violence. But the directors of the road kept 
these fears to themselves, and nothing but holi- 
day gayety appeared in their faces. 

The success of the undertaking was already 
assured, and now they were to have their day 
of triumph, and prove to the world that their 
faith in Stephenson was to bring them rich re- 
wards. 

Early in the morning Liverpool was filled 
with strangers from all parts of England, Ire- 
land, and Scotland, who had been pouring in 
all the week to witness the grand ceremony. 
All the inns were overflowing with guests, and 
carriages stood in the streets all night for want 
of room in the stable-yards. From outside the 
town the elegant equipages of the nobility and 
higher classes came in, filled with beautifully 
dressed ladies, and by ten o'clock the streets 
were thronged. 

The railroad company had provided eight 
locomotives and thirty-three carriages for the 
accommodation of their guests, and as the train 



THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 1 89 

moved out from the depot, filled with elegantly- 
dressed people and decorated with silk flags of 
various colors, and with the military bands play- 
ing the national airs, the effect was most inspir- 
ing. 

The salute of the cannon, and the cheers of 
the immense multitudes on the banks on either 
side of the station, told the whole city that the 
train had started, and as the procession moved 
out with a speed that had never before been 
reached, the spectators were lost in admi- 
ration over the novel sight. All along the 
route the fields were filled with carriages and 
vehicles of every description, containing thou- 
sands of interested lookers-on, whose wonder 
was echoed by the foot-passengers who lined 
the woods for miles. 

To the guests on the train the sensation of 
being carried through the air at such a rate was 
both novel and pleasant, and they said that it 
seemed as if they were flying. The fact that 
the road had been, as far as possible, laid on 
a level afforded another new experience. It 
seemed so strange to pass through hills and 



IQO THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 

cross ravines, and to fly swiftly over streams, 
and to gaze down like the birds of the air upon 
the wide fields, fertile valleys, shining expanses 
of marsh and meadow, and glittering rivers 
upon which the vessels were resting quietly so 
that their crews might have a chance to IqoIv up 
and view the gorgeous pageant that was pass- 
ing through the air hiHh above the mast-heads. 

As the train approached Manchester the ex- 
citement increased. The way was lined for six 
miles with thousands of people ; house-tops, car- 
riages, booths, bridges, and trees, all throng- 
ing with the eager multitude. The laboring 
classes had not neglected to show their disap- 
proval of the road, and all along the route pla- 
cards bearing mottoes of a threatening char- 
acter were displayed. Weavers brought their 
looms close to the road-side, appealing by their 
wretched, half-starved figures to the humanity 
of the crowd, while through the cheering were 
distinctly heard the hisses and hootings of the 
mechanics, who only saw in the grand parade 
coming trouble and sorrow for their order. 

Manchester was reached at three o'clock, 



THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. IQI 

some delay having- been caused by an accident 
to one of the members of the party, and after 
an elegant collation the company returned to 
Liverpool. And in this splendid fashion the 
system of travelling by rail was inaugurated in 
England. 

In America the first attempts were made on 
a much smaller scale. The credit of the first 
American railway is given generally to the little 
road that was built in 1826 at Ouincy, Mass. ; 
but as this was only a road of three miles length, 
and the cars were drawn by horses, it can 
scarcely be called a railway at all. 

One of the first American railroads of any 
importance was opened at Charleston, S. C, 
in January, 1S31. The locomotive, which was 
named the Best Friend, was a very curious 
affair. The formal opening of the road was 
made a time of rejoicing, and the stockholders 
and their friends enjoyed the first trip quite as 
much as had their English brethren, although 
the day was cold and cloudy and the carriages 
anything but comfortable. 

But soon after this an accident happened to 



192 THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 

the Best Friend which threw a cloud over 
joys of railroad travelling. 

The fireman was a negro, and was much 
annoyed by the hissing of the steam as it es- 
caped from the safety-valve, and in the absence 
of the engineer he resolved to remove the nui- 
sance. He therefore fastened down the valve 
so that the steam could no longer escape, and 
then, to make things doubly sure, sat down on 
it himself. 

The results which followed gave such a 
shock to the public faith in railroad travelling 
that the next locomotive that was put in use 
was separated from the passenger-carriages by 
a "barrier-car," filled with bales of cotton, and 
the passengers were assured that no one would 
be allowed to touch the safety-valve but the 
enoineer himself. 

o 

But accidents and discouragements could 
not prevent the building of railroads when once 
the idea had been firmly fixed in men's heads, 
and the new system found favor everywhere, 
and railroads sprung up in all directions. 

At first the speed reached was not nearly 



THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 193 

great as in England, a trial trip between 
the Baltimore & Ohio and a horse, on August 
28, 1830, resulting in favor of the horse, which 
came in as winner of the race ; but, notwith- 
standing this victory, the locomotive gained 
ground steadily, and won its way with all 
classes, and in August, 1831, a trip was made 
from Albany to Schenectady in less than an 
hour, showing that it only needed time to bring 
this wonderful machine to move at an almost 
marvellous rate of speed. This trip over the 
Mohawk Valley road was made the occasion 
of considerable display. The engineer wore a 
dress-coat, and some of the most distinguished 
persons of the day were invited. The carriages 
consisted of the bodies of stage-coaches placed 
upon trucks, and the conductor, after having 
collected the tickets by passing from platform 
to platform outside the cars, mounted on a lit- 
tle seat on the tender, and blew some musi- 
cal notes on a tin horn to signify that all was 
ready. 

The locomotive started ; but the coaches 
were joined together by slack chains, and jerk 
13 



194 THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 

after jerk startled the expectant passengers, in 
many cases sending them flying from their seats. 
And even when quiet was restored, it did not 
last long ; for, as the fuel consisted of dry pitch- 
pine, and the locomotive was not furnished 
with anything to catch the sparks, a quantity 
of smoke, sparks, and cinders kept constantly 
pouring out, and, streaming back over the train, 
causing such discomfort to the outside passen- 
gers that they had to raise their umbrellas. 
This only added to the confusion, for in a short 
time the umbrellas caught fire and had to be 
thrown overboard, while the unlucky owners 
had to dance frantically around on the tops of 
the coaches and whip one another with hand- 
kerchiefs, hats, and canes to put out the fire. 

At the first station some fence-rails were 
braced between the coaches, preventing the 
uncomfortable jerking, and with this improve- 
ment the train moved quietly on without further 
mishap, and, notwithstanding lost hats and um- 
brellas, the passengers considered the trip a 
great success. 

After the year 1S31 railway travel was re- 



THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 195 

garded by all as an assured success, and the 
old stage-coaches were only looked upon as 
substitutes until the new system should be com- 
plete. A few old-fashioned people still retained 
their love for the old way, and travelled from 
place to place in their handsome, if lumbering, 
private coaches, and looked upon the locomo- 
tive as a thing to be as much despised as 
feared. 

But the public service felt the change at 
once, and people saw that the day had gone by 
when a New York merchant, in order to reach 
Philadelphia, would have no choice between a 
journey by sea and the tedious stage-route 
which it took two days to accomplish. 

Some of the oldest railroads in the United 
States were completed by 1835, and by 1841 
railroads had grown to be commonplace affairs. 
In that year the Boston & Worcester road was 
finished, by which the former city was brought 
into direct communication with Albany, an event 
as important in those days as the opening of 
the Pacific road some years later. The road 
had been seven years in building, and its pub- 



196 THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 

lie opening was regarded as marking a new era 
in railroad engineering. The stockholders sat 
down to a banquet in Boston on the evening of 
December 30, 1841, at which bread was served 
made from flour that had been threshed in 
Rochester two days before. The invited guests 
solemnly ate the bread, and agreed that the 
marvellous had come to pass. 

But when the Western States had grown to 
such importance that rapid communication be- 
tween the East and the West had become a 
necessity, the public saw that a railroad reach- 
ing from the Atlantic to the Pacific would be 
the only thing that would solve the problem. 
At first the objections seemed so great that it 
was feared such a plan could not be carried 
out ; but as time went on it was seen that civil 
engineering had advanced to such a science that 
it could accomplish almost anything. 

Great rivers, lofty mountains, dangerous 
chasms and ravines, and deep, rocky canons 
were all overcome by skilful engineering, and 
finally, in 1869, the Pacific Railroad was opened 
to the world, and New York and San Francisco 



THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 197 

were brought within a week's distance of each 
other. 

The completion of this road marked one of 
the most important eras in the history of the 
United States. Previous to this, much of the 
trade from the West had had to find its way 
around Cape Horn, and the loss of time was 
incalculable, while the grains and other products 
from the great central plains were delayed al- 
most as much, owing to the poor facilities for 
transportation. 

But the Pacific Railroad changed all this, 
and has been a source of immense wealth to the 
whole country. The West has grown wealthy 
and populous since its completion, and the East 
has profited by it in no less degree. 

The two oceans no longer seem far apart 
when flowers cut on the Pacific slopes have not 
yet faded on reaching New York, and the two 
great cities of the coast, the one looking toward 
the eastern sea and the other toward the sun- 
setting, though thousands of miles apart, are 
yet bound together by common interests, and 
their friendship forever assured, by those con- 



198 THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 

necting links which in so short a time have 
joined the whole world together in bonds of 
peaceful union. 

Up in the far north the reindeer still draws 
his master's rude sledge over the fields of ice, 
and the Bedouin still urges his patient camel 
over the burning sands of African deserts, but 
in every other region of the world the railroad 
has found its way, crossing Russian steppes 
and Indian plains, and leading the civilization 
of the West back again to its home in the East, 
and heralding there the dawn of a new day 
which will shine more and more perfect as men 
realize how all the nations of the earth are one, 
and are bound together by ties so close that 
the hurt of one must be the hurt of all and the 
good of one the good of all. 



CHAPTER XL 

INDIAN TROUBLES IN FLORIDA. 

The purchase of Florida by the United States 
did not by any means bring the Indian troubles 
to a close. 

There still remained the question whether 
the white man had a right to drive the Indian 
away from his lands whenever the white man 
saw fit ; and although the Government gener- 
ally decided that Indian lands should become 
the property of any whites who chose to claim 
them, the Indians themselves refused to agree 
to this, and many a bloody battle was fought 
in consequence. 

The Seminoles still remained a powerful 
tribe for many years after their country had be- 
come a part of the Union, and they resented 
fiercely any attempt to drive them away from 
Florida. 



200 INDIAN TROUBLES IN FLORIDA. 

Besides the desire of white colonists to occu- 
py the Seminole lands, there was another rea- 
son why it seemed best to persuade the Indians 
to move westward. Escaped slaves still found 
their way to the Everglades of Florida, and 
marriages between negroes and Indians kept up 
the feeling of friendship between the two races, 
who, by years of ill-treatment, had learned to 
look upon the white man as a common enemy. 

South Carolina and Georgia were, as of old, 
the great losers in this, and made constant ob- 
jection to the presence of the Indians in Florida, 
which could not really be considered slave terri- 
tory, while communities of free slaves were living 
within its borders protected by the loyalty and 
bravery of the unconquered Seminoles. 

So powerful was Southern influence where 
the question of slavery was brought up, that 
at last, after some years of indecision, the Gov- 
ernment consented to purchase all the lands of 
the Seminoles, and compel them to move to 
the territory west of the Mississippi where the 
Creeks had gone, and share their new homes 
with them. 



INDIAN TROUBLES IN FLORIDA. 201 

Eighty years before this the Seminoles had 
revolted from the Creeks and had since been an 
independent tribe, and when they heard that 
their homes were to be taken from them and 
that they were expected to live in friendly fash- 
ion with their old enemies and perhaps come un- 
der their rule, their indignation knew no bounds. 

The most bitter and undying hatred sprang 
up in their hearts toward the people who wished 
to compel them to these measures, and war was 
at once resolved upon. 

In all dealings with the Indians the United 
States acted the part of a powerful Government 
willing to take advantage of the ignorant and 
helpless. 

Right and wrong were seldom considered 
when Indian lands were in question, and if any 
part of the country seemed peculiarly adapted 
to growth and improvement, it was immediately 
coveted by the whites, and the tribes compelled 
to seek refuge elsewhere, the money that was 
given them in return often falling far short of the 
real value of the land. And this was true of the 
Seminole, as well as other tribes. 



202 INDIAN TROUBLES IN FLORIDA. 

The Government offered the tribe $15,000 
for their lands in Florida, and agreed to pay 
them certain sums of money yearly, but this 
could not be called buying the land, as the 
Seminoles positively refused to sell, and de- 
clared again and again their great unwilling- 
ness to remove. 

But they were hated by the whites because 
of their relationship with the negroes, and it was 
believed with reason that South Carolina and 
Georgia would continue losing their best slaves 
while the Seminoles remained such close neigh- 
bors, and so no attention was paid to the fact 
that the Indians did not wish to leave their 
homes, and every effort was made to compel 
them to go. 

One of the leading Seminole chiefs at this 
time was Osceola. His wife was the daughter 
of an escaped slave, and had been born in the 
Everglades. The children born of the marriages 
between the Indians and negroes were called 
maroons, and were claimed as property by the 
slaveholders, who never lost an opportunity of 
bringing them into bondage, and once when 



INDIAN TROUBLES IN FLORIDA. 203 

Osceola and his wife were visiting one of the 
United States forts, the young maroon was 
seized as a slave by her mother's old master 
and carried off into captivity. Osceola had 
been placed in irons while this was being done, 
but as soon as his wife was safe out of the way 
he was given his freedom. His first act on 
reaching his tribe was to swear undying ven- 
geance against the whites. 

And when the Seminoles met in council to 
talk over the treaty that had been proposed by 
the United States Government, Osceola drove 
his knife into the table and declared that he 
would execute a treaty with that alone. One of 
the most terrible of Indian wars at once followed. 

Osceola threatened instant death to any 
Indian who should consent to move west, and 
one chief more peaceably inclined than the rest 
was killed by the tribe. 

The white settlers of Florida now felt the 
full fury of the outraged and indignant Indians 
and negroes, who moved over the State in 
bands, showing no mercy to their enemies and 
asking none for themselves. 



204 INDIAN TROUBLES IN FLORIDA. 

Troops were at once sent against them, but 
for a time it seemed that the wily foe would out- 
wit all the generalship of the United States 
Army. 

A body of men numbering about one hun- 
dred and forty, commanded by Major Dade, was 
met by the Indians, and all but two shot down, 
even the wounded being butchered by the ne- 
groes as they lay in the grass. 

The settlers in the interior of the State be- 
came so alarmed over the raids of the Indians, 
that whole towns and villages were forsaken, 
the people flying for refuge to the forts and 
towns along the coast. 

Whole families were butchered, and the 
messengers of the Government, carrying orders 
from one military station to another, were often 
murdered by the vigilant enemy, and their bodies 
hung up on the trees as a warning to their 
successors. 

The swamps furnished the securest hiding- 
places for the savages, and it was almost im- 
possible to track them to their retreats. 

Band after band would emerge from these 



INDIAN TROUBLES IN FLORIDA. 205 

dark recesses, go on their way of murder and 
destruction, and then return to have their places 
taken by others equally bloodthirsty and watch- 
ful. A moss-covered log, a bending cypress, 
even a hummock of tall grass would prove a safe 
shelter for the Indian or negro, while the pur- 
suing white man would only serve as a target 
for the unerring arrow or ball. 

The Indians held true to their old modes of 
warfare, and it was almost impossible to meet 
them in the open field. Sudden attacks on 
scattered farm-houses, stealthy journeys through 
the moss-hung forests, and unexpected descents 
in overwhelming numbers upon wagon-trains 
and detached bands of military, were their 
surest means of victory, and after a success 
more glowing than usual, a swift retreat to dense 
swamps and inaccessible islands, while the de- 
feated enemy could only peer vainly through 
the foliage, seeing nothing of the triumphant 
warriors. 

In order to prevent these sudden retreats of 
the savages into their hiding-places, the Govern- 
ment ordered blood-hounds to be brought from 



206 INDIAN TROUBLES IN FLORIDA. 

Cuba, and when these arrived, with their Spanish 
masters, it seemed that the trouble would speed- 
ily come to an end. But it was found that the 
blood-hounds had been trained only to follow 
negroes, and refused to track the Indians, and 
all the money that had been spent in bringing 
them from Cuba was thrown away. 

Added to this came the sickness which at- 
tacked the soldiers in the warm months, and 
rendered them so unfit for duty that many of the 
military posts had to be abandoned. 

But a still more determined effort was made 
by the Government, and in the winter of 1837 
eight thousand troops entered upon a campaign 
and succeeded with great effort in driving the 
Indians from the Everglades and forcing them 
to sue for peace. 

A short time afterward seven hundred In- 
dians and maroons were sent off to Tampa to 
be shipped West. 

Osceola, a few months before, had gone to 
one of the forts under a flag of truce. He had 
been seized immediately and sent to Fort Moul- 
trie, and after a weary imprisonment died of grief. 



INDIAN TROUBLES IN FLORIDA. 207 

But the war did not end for all that, and the 
remaining Indians and maroons had become so 
wary that it was almost impossible to follow 
them in the swamps and woods. 

But the troops became more and more skil- 
ful in Indian warfare, and gradually small parties 
of the savages were captured and sent West, 
with such maroons as were not claimed by 
slave-holders, and so, very slowly, the Indian 
power was broken up. 

Finally, in the year 1841, General Worth's 
troops ascended the rivers in small parties, and 
penetrated to the swamps and islands, and de- 
stroyed the hiding-places of the Indians, and with 
them the crops that they depended upon for their 
winter food, and this struck the last blow to the 
power of the Seminoles. One by one the bands 
gave themselves up as prisoners, and party after 
party was sent on to the West, until almost the 
last Seminole had disappeared from Florida. 

The war ended, having lasted six years, and 
having cost the country forty millions of dollars, 
twice as much as had been paid for Florida and 
Louisiana together. 



208 INDIAN TROUBLES IN FLORIDA. 

But some escaped slaves had been dragged 
back into bondage, and a few unfortunate ma- 
roons had been forced to exchange freedom for 
servitude ; the Seminoles had also been driven 
away, and so the war was looked upon as a 
brilliant success. 

No thought was given to the original owners 
of the land, whose claims dated back to a time 
when America was yet a wilderness, and the 
white man had not learned to claim all its wealth 
for his own. 

But like many another tribe, the Seminoles 
had learned that their rights must disappear 
before the wishes of their white brothers, and 
sadly they turned their faces toward the West, 
that last refuge for their race, and with hearts 
full of bitterness and sorrow, accepted the fate 
that willed that might, and not right, should 
rule. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

Long ago, when people believed a great many 
things that they think themselves too wise to 
believe now, when elves and fairies, witches and 
spirits, will-o'-the-wisps, brownies, and good- 
fellows of all kinds lived on the earth, and did 
many a good turn to poor humans, it was not 
thought impossible for the air to be filled at all 
hours of the day and night with these obliging 
messengers, who were always flying hither and 
thither on their errands of love and duty. 

A spark of light in the valley, the gleam of 
a torch in the mountains, the faint cry of a bird 
in the woods, a cold breath of air blown across 
the face in the darkness, a strange and subtle 
perfume lingering around a place where no 
flowers had ever bloomed, were all signs that 

these little people were about their work, and 
14 



2IO THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

that tired humanity might go to rest quite sure 
that the world would be well taken care of while 
it slept. 

In those days all the earth seemed full of 
unseen spirits, and every thing in nature had a 
voice to speak its mission to the world. The 
trees and flowers, the brooks and fountains, the 
winds and the buds, were all gifted with strange 
powers, and could work good or ill as they so 
desired, and man was very thankful for their 
good offices, and very careful not to offend 
them lest they should use their power for harm. 

But as the world grew older the belief in all 
these supernatural beings gradually died out, 
and only a few old people or children could be 
found who kept their faith in the merry little 
folk of old. 

Perhaps there would still linger among the 
simple inhabitants of a secluded village a little 
superstition about lucky and unlucky days, 
witches' charms, fairy rings, and elfin lights in 
the meadows ; but for the rest of mankind all the 
belief in such things had changed to only a 
childish memory. 




THE TELEGRAPH. 



THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 211 

And yet, when the world thought itself 
wisest, when all the secrets of nature seemed 
spread out before man like an open book, when 
he had learned all about the laws of the winds 
and tides, and the courses of the stars, and the 
meanings that lay beneath the tint of every leaf 
and flower, and when the interior of the earth, 
which he had once supposed peopled with 
demons and spirits of darkness, was laid bare 
before his eyes, and its rich treasures yielded 
themselves up to his hands, even then his 
knowledge was really so limited that he was 
ignorant of the one mystery that is in all nature 
the oreatest. 

For although his belief in the spirits of the 
air had long since vanished, there were yet 
mysterious and unseen forces filling the earth 
and heavens, and gifted with powers so strange 
and wonderful that the wildest dreams of man 
could never have imagined them. 

The heart of the oak and the leaf of the 
rose, the mighty boulder of granite and the 
smallest diamond, the waters, the mountains, 
the clouds, and everything in the universe were 



212 THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

all guarding a secret so great in its powers auu 
so mighty in its influence, that when man should 
learn it, it would change the whole world for 
him, and make him the possessor of a servant 
far excelling in ability any fairies, elves, or genii, 
who had ever lived. 

A few hints of this great mystery had come 
to man from time to time, but in a way so ob- 
scure that the puzzle seemed only the greater. 
Perhaps it was because of the faint revealings 
of these unseen forces that the race first came 
to believe in the power of mysterious agencies 
in nature, working out their will for the good or 
ill of mankind ; but however that may be, it is 
certain that the secret was whispered faintly 
many years ago, and that from the earliest 
times man had tried earnestly to discover this 
most elusive wonder of nature. 

The old Greeks thought for a long time that 
this strange power was found only in amber, and 
so named it electron, which is the Greek word 
for that substance, and from this name came 
the modern term, electricity. But the name 
means nothing, and explains none of the won- 



THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 213 

aerful qualities which this invisible force pos- 
sesses, and is only kept because there must be 
a name, and this is as appropriate as any other 
would be. 

More than two thousand years ago it was 
observed that when a piece of amber was rubbed 
with silk it acquired the power of attracting 
light bodies to it, and as time went on it came 
to be known that other bodies, such as sulphur, 
sealing-wax, and glass, have the same property 
as amber, and it is now believed that every sub- 
stance has the same power to a greater or less 
degree, or, in other words, everything in nature 
is supposed to contain a certain amount of 
electricity. 

But although this power is so universal, we 
can tell its presence in a substance only by 
the effect it produces. Of its nature we know 
nothing ; we only know that it exists because 
we are able to force it out of its hiding-places, 
and we have learned in some degree to what 
uses we may put it, but all the rest is a great 
mystery. 

It has been found that electricity possesses 



214 THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

the power of passing from one body to another, 
and from this knowledge has come some of its 
chief benefits to mankind. But not all bodies 
receive electricity with the same degree of ease. 
Those substances which receive it easily are 
called conductors, such as metals, flame, acids, 
smoke, and many others ; substances which do 
not receive electricity easily are called non- 
conductors, such as glass, silk, wax, feathers, 
amber, lime, mica, the diamond, all transparent 
precious stones, and many others, and both con- 
ductors and non-conductors are necessary to 
make electricity of any use to man. 

By careful study it has been discovered that 
this mighty force is capable of performing a great 
many wonderful things. 

Rub two different substances together and 
the electricity which is produced will often show 
itself in a little spark. This fact has led to the 
discovery that electricity can produce light, and 
that the tiny spark which a child may develop 
by walking over a carpet, the lightnings which 
flash from horizon to zenith in the thunder- 
storms of summer, and the burning spears of 



THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 21 5 

the aurora, are all the results of that hidden 
power whose workings are so mysterious and 
so full of awe. 

Electricity can also produce heat so great 
that the hardest substances will melt under its 
power, and an electric current sent into a vessel 
of water will speedily separate the oxygen and 
hydrogen of which the water is composed, and 
drive them far apart. 

But the property that makes it most useful 
to mankind is more wonderful than any of these. 
From the earliest times there has been known 
to exist a very curious mineral, called loadstone. 
This substance, which is composed of iron and 
oxygen, possesses the singular power of attract- 
ing to it any particles of iron which may be 
placed near its surface. 

This mineral, which was found in great 
abundance in the ancient city of Magnesia, in 
Asia, received the name of magnet, from that 
city, and it is very often called by that name. 

One of the most remarkable qualities which 
the loadstone possesses, is its power of giving 
its property of attracting iron, to a needle or 



2l6 THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

steel bar which is rubbed against it, the needle 
also being able, after having been rubbed several 
times against the loadstone, to attract pieces of 
iron ; it is then said to be magnetized. 

A piece of steel which has acquired this 
power is called a magnetic needle, and has the 
peculiar habit of always pointing north and 
south when suspended freely in the air. 

From this circumstance the magnetic needle 
became an invaluable aid to seamen, and made 
ocean voyaging a much easier thing than it had 
ever been before its use was introduced. 

For a long time the chief use of the mag- 
netic needle seemed to be to guide man in his 
travels by land and sea, but as time passed 
the world began to wonder if this useful little 
object would not some time be put to another 
service equally great. 

Philosophers had for ages pondered over 
magnetism and electricity, and wondered if these 
two strange and powerful forces might not be 
in some way related. 

Many wise men gave their lives to the 
study of this perplexing problem, but its solu- 



THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 217 

tion always evaded them, and they could only 
follow vainly the hints and suggestions which 
came to them from time to time, but which al- 
ways proved as fruitless and elusive as the pur- 
suit of the will-o'-the-wisp. 

But in 1820 the great Danish philosopher, 
Oersted, made a discovery which has led to the 
most wonderful invention in the history of the 
world. 

By long and careful experiments, which ex- 
tended through years of study, Oersted came 
to the secret that had eluded all the philoso- 
phers before him, and found the strange rela- 
tionship that exists between electricity and mag- 
netism, and proved that a magnet will act upon 
electricity, and electricity upon a magnet, to 
such a degree that the magnetic needle will 
turn from its usual direction and swing around 
to the east or west. 

This wonderful discovery added immensely 
to the sum of the world's knowledge, and was 
destined to lead to the most important results. 

Previous to this it had been observed that 
in very high latitudes, and under certain other 



2l8 THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

conditions, the magnetic needle did not remain 
fixed; but to Oersted belongs the credit of dis- 
covering the connection between this phenom- 
enon and electricity. 

Oersted's discovery at once set the whole 
world thinking. He had found that a wire, 
through which a current of electricity was pass- 
ing, could control the action of the magnetic 
needle, and men of science were eager to make 
this knowledge of use to the world. 

Long before this, philosophers had tried to 
think of some plan by which messages could be 
sent from one place to another by using the 
power which electricity possesses of being sent 
to any distance through a wire or metal bar, 
but all experiments had so far failed. 

As early as 1649 a Jesuit priest published a 
curious book, in which he tried to show that 
two magnetic needles, situated at great dis- 
tances apart, might be made to transmit mes- 
sages, and from his time down many different 
philosophers attempted various inventions for 
the same purpose. But it was not until after 
Oersted's discovery that sending messages by 



THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 219 

electricity, or telegraphy, was made a thorough 
success. 

In 1837 Professor Morse, an American in- 
ventor, gave to the world an invention which 
far excelled all previous ones in importance. 
He had perfected a machine by which it was 
possible to combine the use of electricity with 
the magnetic needle, and transmit messages be- 
tween places, no matter how far apart. 

Although Professor Morse profited by the 
experience and wisdom of many before him, 
and very little of his invention is strictly orig- 
inal with him, yet to him belongs the credit of 
completing a machine so perfect that from the 
time he gave his ideas to the world telegraphy 
became a practical and assured success. 

His method consists in sending a current 
of electricity through a wire to a point near 
which is suspended a magnetic needle. As the 
electricity passes the needle, it is turned from 
its true position, and swings east or west, and 
does not again point north until the current of 
electricity has ceased. It is therefore possible 
for a person standing at one end of the wire to 



220 THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

control the action of the needle near the other 
end, no matter how far distant, by merely shut- 
ting off or putting on the current, and as every 
motion of the needle could be made to stand for 
a certain sign, or every second of time between 
the passing or stopping of the current could 
stand for a certain letter, or even the sound made 
to mean certain words, why, sending messages 
by electricity became an easy matter. Like all 
other great inventions the result seemed simple 
enough when once accomplished, and the Morse 
system of telegraphy seemed at once to solve the 
problem that had vexed other inventors so long. 

As electricity travels almost with the swift- 
ness of thought, scientific men at once saw how 
its use in telegraphy would confer the greatest 
gift that science had ever given to the world. 

But every great invention has to fight its 
way into favor with the multitude, and tele- 
graphy was no exception. Professor Morse 
had to plead so hard for his invention, and de- 
fend it from such absurd charges, that one 
would have supposed he wished to introduce 
some dreadful evil into the world. 



THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 221 

Some laughed at his idea, some thought it 
irreverent to pry thus into the secrets of nature, 
others feared it as likely to work harm to the 
world, and not a few thought the great inven- 
tor fit only for the lunatic asylum. 

But the same courage and patience that 
had upheld him while perfecting his great 
system, now came to his aid, and after many 
years of waiting he finally gained the con- 
sent of the Government to furnish money for 
building telegraph lines in order to test the 
invention. 

The first line built in the United States was 
put in operation in June, 1844, between Wash- 
ington City and Baltimore, and fully established 
the success of the Morse system. By 1848, 
there were lines running as far west as Buffalo, 
and as far north as Montreal, and although elec- 
tric telegraphing had been vaguely known to the 
scientific world since 1786, yet so complete and 
perfect was the new system, and so thoroughly 
a success, that now, for the first time, it seemed 
possible to think of it as taking a place among 
the great inventions of the world. 



222 THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

Never before, in the history of civilization, 
had anything so important happened as the per- 
fection of the magnetic telegraph. 

Man had made use of strange messengers 
to carry his thoughts from place to place, but 
electricity was the strangest of all. 

The bark of a tree, the reeds of the Nile, the 
skin of an animal, graven stones, waxen tab- 
lets, and the white wings of birds had all served 
their time as instruments of man's wish to send 
messages of greeting, or peace, or war, from 
place to place, and it had even been believed 
that the air could carry strange secrets, and that 
man's inmost thought could be read by magi- 
cians, and astrologers predict his fate from the 
stars ; but all inventions and all marvels paled 
before this, in which dwelt a power so great, 
and yet so mysterious, that man could only 
grasp but a small hint of it, and seemed des- 
tined to stand forever shut out from its real 
character and meaning. Again a part of his 
lost faith returned and in the presence of this 
subtle force which fills the universe, he was 
once more forced to believe in unseen agencies 



THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 223 

abounding in earth and air, and capable of per- 
forming wonderful deeds. 

It is true he had learned to look with some- 
what clearer eyes, and his thought was far more 
intelligent than in the old days, while the power 
to bring these forces to his own will, in even a 
slight degree, had made his attitude toward 
nature more dignified and self-appreciative ; but 
the great mystery still remained as much a mys- 
tery as ever. Nature still held her secret close, 
and man could only put out his hand to take the 
small measure that was vouchsafed to him, and 
rest content with that. 

And yet, small as is his knowledge of this 
wonderful power, he has given to it uses that 
are almost infinite. It carries man's thought 
from continent to continent, speeds down miles 
of railroad to avert threatening danger, and its 
signals flash from mountain height to coast, to 
herald the approaching storm ; it illumines the 
streets of great cities, its brilliance almost turn- 
ing the night into day ; the worker in metals 
finds it a ready helper in executing his designs, 
and the chemist unravels some of the deepest 



224 THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

secrets of nature by the same subtle agency; 
while many other purposes as varied and great 
all prove its use to the world. 

A few years after Morse's system came into 
use telegraphic lines had spread in all directions 
over both continents. 

From the Arctic Ocean southward to the 
heights of the Andes, and from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific, America was traversed by thousands of 
miles of telegraph lines. And in the Old World 
the new thought made just as rapid progress — 
Europe, Africa, and Asia were at once joined by 
a network of these delicate wires that have fol- 
lowed the thought of man in infinite directions. 
Under the waters of the English Channel, the 
North Sea, the Black, the Mediterranean, and 
the Red, from peak to peak of the Alps, over 
the pleasant valleys of Italy and France, and 
across the mountains and deserts of Asia, the 
electric telegraph pushed its way, step by step, 
with an energy that scorned all difficulties. 
Engineers traversed dense Asiatic forests, and 
brought the most uncivilized races of the world 
to a knowledge of the progress of man. Can- 



THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 225 

ton and St. Petersburg-, India and the Nile, 
were joined together by this mysterious bond, 
and the white peaks of the Himalayas and the 
snow-fields of Russia seemed separated only by 
a moment's space from the African deserts and 
the red rose-gardens of Persia and Arabia. 

And yet, when all this was done, man was 
not yet satisfied. There still remained the great 
ocean between the Old World and the New, and 
while it yet took days of buffeting with winds 
and waves to bring the two continents into com- 
munication, the telegraph seemed to only have 
fulfilled half its mission. 

England had already shown that lines could 
be used under water, and now the great ques- 
tion arose as to how to use this knowledge for 
the laying of wires underneath the ocean. To 
the early experimenters in electricity this would 
have seemed impossible, for although there are 
certain fish that possess the power of producing 
electricity in such quantity sometimes that they 
can transmit a shock sufficient to cause death to 
the animal that touches them, yet it was well 

known that it was most difficult for man to send 
15 



226 THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

a current over any wire that was buried beneath 
the water. 

But human ingenuity went to work, and after 
many failures, this difficulty was also overcome, 
and it was found possible to cover the wires so 
that the electric current would not be disturbed 
by the water. Then the ocean was sounded from 
shore to shore, and it was found that between 
the coasts of Ireland and Newfoundland the 
bottom of the sea consisted of a plateau so per- 
fectly adapted to the uses of the telegraph that 
nothing better could have been imagined. This 
vast plain was so shallow that the wires could 
easily be laid at the bottom, and yet so deep 
that they would be forever beyond the reach of 
ships, icebergs, anchors, wrecks, and sea-drifts 
of any kind. No ocean currents disturbed the 
calm of this deep-sea region, and the tiny shells 
which strewed the bed were as perfect as when 
first deposited. Here the wires might fall, and 
rest secure from all mishap. 

And so the heavy cable-wire was prepared, 
and ships sent out to meet in mid-ocean and 
join the great wires together. The vessels met 



THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 227 

at the appointed place, and after splicing the 
cable, separated, one sailing for the coast of 
Ireland and the other for Newfoundland. Both 
reached harbor safely, and on the morning of 
August 7, 1857, Mr. Cyrus W. Field, of New- 
York, through whose untiring efforts the plan 
had been carried out, announced to the world 
that the Atlantic Cable was successfully -laid, 
and that the signals through the wires were 
perfect. Great rejoicings followed ; all over the 
land bells were rung, cannon fired, and flags 
displayed, and although this first attempt did 
not afterward prove successful, yet the fact was 
established that it was possible to lay telegraph 
wires under the Atlantic, and in the year 1867 
the present cable was finished. 

And so the greatest marvel of any age was 
accomplished, and Europe and America could 
speak to each other with the speed of thought, 
and the ends of the earth were joined together 
with the bands of the lightning. 

Not yet fifty years have passed since Morse 
gave his system to the world, but the results 
have proved more important than all the changes 



228 THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 

that have taken place since the earliest dawn of 
history. No one can tell to what the use of 
electricity as a messenger of thought may lead, 
but it is certain that there must remain for it 
still wide fields of action, and the coming ages 
may witness such an increase of knowledge of 
its laws, and so many wide uses of them, that 
the telegraph, which is the marvel of the age, 
will seem no more wondrous than the magic 
charms and elfin deeds of old seem to the peo- 
ple of to-day. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 

Nearly a hundred years before La Salle had 
wandered hopelessly amid the forests of Texas 
in his vain effort to discover the mouth of the 
Mississippi, Spanish priests had travelled north- 
ward from Mexico, and had established a mis- 
sion amonor the Indians near what is now the 
city of Santa Fe. 

The Indians seemed kindly and well dis- 
posed, and for nearly a century the two races 
dwelt together peaceably, while the mission 
grew, and the tribes in distant regions became 
familiar with the idea of these white priests who 
taught their dark neighbors the arts of peace, 
and endeavored to lift them above the hard and 
brutal life of the savage. 

But as time passed, the Indians grew restive 
under these restraints, and at last rose in a body, 



230 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 

and after killing a large number of Spaniards, 
compelled the remainder to retreat to the bor- 
ders of Mexico. 

The Spanish Government, however, had no 
intention of giving up the rich province of New- 
Mexico so easily, and a large force of troops 
was sent thither to recover the country. For 
fifteen years the struggle lasted, and resulted in 
the conquest of New Mexico by Spain, and the 
establishment of peace over all the country. 

This was in the year 1695, a few years after 
the death of La Salle. 

The attempts of the French to make settle- 
ments in Texas greatly aroused the anger and 
opposition of Spain, who considered that she 
alone had the right to build up the new country. 

France claimed Texas as a part of Louisi- 
ana, which she said belonged to her by right of 
discovery ; but on the other hand, Spain had 
long before issued an order forbidding all for- 
eigners from entering the waters of the Gulf of 
Mexico, claiming the whole region lying on its 
borders as hers, by right of the discoveries of 
De Leon, Narvaez, and De Soto. 



THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 23 1 

And so, when the news of the French expe- 
dition into Texas was carried by the Indians to 
the priests at the missions, and so travelled on 
into Mexico, the viceroy of that country imme- 
diately called a council of war, at which it was 
decided that it was the duty of every loyal 
Spaniard to join a crusade against the invaders, 
and drive them out of the country. 

But sickness and death had already been 
among the unfortunate French, and the Spanish 
commander only succeeded in taking two pris- 
oners, the rest of the company having died 
while wandering through the wilderness, or 
been scattered among different tribes as prison- 
ers. 

However, the expedition from Mexico was 
considered of such importance that the King of 
Spain immediately ordered missions to be es- 
tablished all over Texas, thinking rightly that if 
he allowed the French to gain any foothold in 
that country, his possessions in New Mexico 
would be greatly endangered. 

The Indians of Texas were wandering and 
quarrelsome tribes, who from time immemorial, 



232 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 

had plundered and stolen from the Aztecs, and 
when Mexico was conquered by Spain these 
roving savages still continued their evil practices, 
keeping themselves supplied with horses, arms, 
silver plate, and other articles by their thefts 
upon the European colonies at El Paso, Mon- 
terey, and elsewhere, and not content with 
stealing for themselves, furnishing the Indians 
along the coast with horses and fire-arms ob- 
tained from the same sources. 

They were divided into tribes which were 
constantly at war with one another, and differed 
greatly in disposition and habits. 

The principal tribe were the Cenis, who 
were distinguished for their hospitality and 
gentleness. This tribe lived along the banks of 
the Trinity, in large and populous villages. 
Their houses were shaped like bee-hives, and 
were sometimes forty feet high. They raised 
corn and grain, and used horses, money, silver 
spoons, spurs, and clothing which they had ob- 
tained from the Spaniards. 

Like the Aztecs, they worshipped the sun, 
and believed in a Creator ; and in common 



THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 233 

with other North American Indians, had their 
rain-makers, game-finders, and witches. 

At first the effort to establish missions 
among them was not successful ; the seasons 
were bad, crops failed, cattle died, and the In- 
dians were hostile ; and before long all the posts 
excepting El Paso, which was on the route to 
the silver mines of New Mexico, and one on the 
Rio Grande, were abandoned. 

But the colonization of Louisiana by the 
French roused the Spaniards to new exertions, 
and in the year 171 5, permanent missions were 
established in Texas. 

Thus Spain quietly took possession of all 
that vast country extending from the Sabine 
to the Rio Grande, and containing within its 
boundaries natural resources for almost un- 
limited wealth. 

The little missions were at first but humble 
affairs. Cabins were built of rough hewn logs, 
interlaced and thatched with branches, and the 
unpretending chapel and hospital were of the 
same rude material. But the climate was mild, 
the soil fertile, and the wants of the good Fran- 



234 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 

ciscan priests few and simple, and so the mis- 
sions grew and flourished, and became centres 
of civilization in that wild, rough country, where 
hitherto the beauty of peaceful and happy liv- 
ing had been unknown. 

The Indians, for the most part, were good- 
natured and willing to be taught ; they cheer- 
fully waited upon the priests, and willingly per- 
formed small duties for the soldiers ; for all the 
larger missions had garrisons of soldiers ; being 
called from this circumstance, presidios. Each 
presidio or military post had a mission attached 
to it, and these stations soon grew to be places 
of considerable importance. 

The buildings of the presidio consisted of the 
church, dwellings for officers, priests, and sol- 
diers, hospital, storehouses, and prisons, all 
erected around a great square called the plaza 
de armas. The converted Indians lived in huts 
at a little distance from the whites, and were 
obliged to perform daily penance for any wrong- 
doing. 

The Franciscan fathers at the presidios 
strictly observed the rules of their order. They 



THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 235 

wore coarse woollen robes tied with cords, from 
which hung a knotted scourge, and went with 
their feet entirely bare. Having taken the 
vows of self-denial and poverty, they worked 
without hope of reward, and performed their 
labors so conscientiously that they gained great 
influence over the Indians. But it was very 
hard work to make the savages understand 
that their whole mode of life was wrong in 
the eyes of the priests. 

The Franciscans did not, like the Jesuits, enter 
into the life of the tribes they tried to convert, 
but, on the contrary, they presented religion in 
such a gloomy and forbidding light that, if it had 
not been for the protection and shelter they 
offered the Indians, they would have had but 
few converts. 

Up in the lake region, where the Indians 
first came under the influence of the French 
missionaries, who were of cheerful and loving 
disposition, it rarely happened that a native, af- 
ter having been converted, gave up his faith and 
returned to his savage practices, for he found 
as good companionship in the priests as he 



236 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 

could desire. They hunted and fished with 
him, joined him in his feasts, and praised his 
skill in the chase and at the games ; but the 
Spanish Franciscans looked upon these sports 
with abhorrence, and tried, in every way, to 
induce the Indians to give them up. 

The fathers offered the natives food and 
raiment and shelter, and in return for these they 
expected them to change their tastes and habits 
entirely. 

They had to learn the value of property, to 
build homes and seek means for supporting 
their families, not trusting, as of old, to their luck 
in fishing or hunting ; they had to give up their 
wandering lives and settle down in communities 
around the mission, and instead of the war- 
whoop and battle-cry, they were expected to 
care only for the Latin prayers and chants of 
the priests. 

Besides this, the Indians had to be taught 
that, the Great Spirit, whom they all revered, 
did not delight in murder and bloodshed, but 
that, on the contrary, the Christian was ex- 
pected to forgive his enemy instead of scalping 



THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 237 

him, and to help a brother in distress instead of 
taking from him the little he might have. 

From early morning until evening the ser- 
vices of the Church were regularly performed 
in the little wooden chapels of the missions, and 
Sundays and festivals were as strictly observed 
as in the stately cathedrals of Mexico and Spain. 

The mystic rites of the Church never failed 
to inspire the simple natives with awe; they 
willingly devoted their time and strength to as- 
sist the priests in carrying on the religious cere- 
monies, and were never so happy as when al- 
lowed to take part in decorating the chapels for 
the different festivals, or joining in the singing 
and chanting. This part of the Christian relig- 
ion seemed to them beautiful and desirable, 
but the gloomier side repelled them. They dis- 
liked the endless prayers and numerous pen- 
ances, and it was no infrequent thing for a party 
of young braves to steal off from the mission at 
night, and join their friends in a wild hunt or 
bloodthirsty war-party. 

Such offences were always met with stern 
disapproval by the friars, who, unlike the French 



238 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 

priests, did not try to win the wrong-doers back 
by persuasion, but, on the contrary, held over 
their heads awful threats of the anger of heaven 
against such offenders. But, notwithstanding 
these drawbacks, the influence of the fathers 
gradually made itself felt throughout Texas, 
even the more distant tribes coming more or 
less under the civilizing power of Christianity. 

And so around the little missions settle- 
ments of Christian Indians grew slowly up. 
The young were carefully trained in the doc- 
trines of the Roman Church, and as converts 
were never allowed to marry among the un- 
converted, in a few years there was a race of 
domestic Indians living around the missions, 
peaceable in habit, and depending upon the 
cultivation of the ground for their support. 

Sometimes these converts were sent out 
among their still savage brothers to induce 
them to lead civilized lives, and so great was 
their zeal for making converts, that it often hap- 
pened they brought the unwilling savages in by 
force, and compelled them to be baptized ; and 
even this singular way of winning converts 



THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 239 

wrought good effects ; for however distasteful 
the confinement of the missions might seem to 
the chiefs and warriors, they invariably grew 
very fond of the pious friars who had left the 
comforts of civilization and accepted lives of 
deprivation and danger, for the sake of their 
savage and untaught brethren. 

It is pleasant to think of these peaceful little 
settlements in the midst of the Texan forests, 
where the good priests and grateful Indians 
lived in loving companionship for so many 
years. 

And not only were the missions of benefit to 
the natives, but the weary traveller over plain 
and mountain could always turn his steps toward 
the presidio, sure of welcome and repose, and 
to the adventurous settler who had reared his 
lonely cabin far away in the mighty forest, 
there was no sight or sound so cheering as the 
cross rising from the gable of the little chapel, 
or the music of the Angelus stealing through 
the dusky woods, and filling the twilight hour 
with thoughts of love and peace. 

After the establishment of the presidios the 



240 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 

Indians naturally fell into two classes. T, 1 
who remained unconverted were called Indian 
bravos, and those who knew how to make the 
sign of the cross were styled converted Indians, 
for the friars soon learned that these ignorant 
savages could only be taught by things that ap- 
pealed to their imagination, and that the spirit 
of Christianity was something they could not 
understand. 

The rite of baptism, the administration of 
the sacraments, the reverential attitude, the sign 
of the cross, the sound of the church-bell, and 
even the robes of the priest, had for them a 
mysterious and powerful fascination ; but in 
most cases the friars had to be content with 
the performance of these outward signs, for it 
seemed almost impossible to teach the Indian 
that love and gentleness were more a part of 
Christian doctrine than decorating the font at 
Easter, or bowing at the mention of the Trinity. 

The belief in the power of things visible was 
inborn among the Indians, and once, when a 
party of Spaniards had gone on an expedition 
against the French on the Mississippi, the Mis- 



THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 24 1 

1 chief who encountered them spared only 
tne priest in the general butchery that followed, 
and afterward gravely appeared at the French 
fort decked out in the ornaments of the chapel, 
wearing the paten as a breastplate and thinking 
he had acquired great honor thereby, although 
he was covered with war-paint and his head 
was crowned with feathers and a pair of horns. 

During the American Revolution, Texas re- 
mained quiet, being too far from the scene of 
action to take any important part, and as yet 
too little known to attract any attention. 

But after the purchase of Louisiana by the 
United States, the great territory lying west of 
it began to attract some notice. 

American settlers began to venture into the 
Texan forests, and trade was slowly established 
between Mexico and the Western frontier by 
way of the Spanish mission-posts in Texas. 

Gradually the population increased and the 

presidios grew into flourishing towns. The 

natural resources began to be appreciated, and 

large settlements of Americans were in a few 

years scattered all over the country. 
16 



242 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 

In the meantime, as the years went on, 
Mexico grew more and more restive under the 
rule of Spain, and after a long struggle with the 
Spanish crown declared her independence in 
1821. 

Soon after this, application was made to the 
new republic for permission to found American 
colonies in Texas, and this was the beginning 
of a powerful American influence in that coun- 
try, which soon counted large numbers of peo- 
ple from the United States among her popula- 
tion. 

These pioneers had a hard time of it at first, 
for the Indians were hostile, the Mexicans none 
too friendly, and the work of forming new set- 
tlements difficult and often discouraging. The 
comforts of life were almost unknown during 
the first years, the emigrants being content with 
seeing order and beauty slowly growing up 
around their new homes. Men, women, and 
children alike wore clothing made of buckskin, 
and shoes were a luxury unknown except in the 
coldest weather. Once in a while a strolling 
pedler would find his way into the settlements, 



THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 243 

and from him would be obtained needles, thread, 
and occasionally a piece of calico, for which 
fabulous prices were paid. 

The history of Texas at this time is like that 
of the early settlement of the Mississippi Valley. 
Hardships were bravely borne, and the trouble 
with the Indians and the dangers of frontier 
life only united the pioneers more closely to- 
gether, and developed that spirit of indepen- 
dence which characterized all the early settlers. 

The Government of Mexico had abolished 
slavery, and took some pains to establish 
schools. But these latter were Mexican in 
character, and did not meet the ideas of the 
American settlers. 

The pupils were taught reading, writing, 
arithmetic, and the dogmas of the Roman 
Church. The school was held in a large room 
furnished with a few wooden benches, and hav- 
ing - the floor covered with cow-hides. The 
pupils all repeated their lessons at the top of 
their voices, while the master stalked around, 
ferule in hand, dressed in leather breeches and 
jerkin, with a bright handkerchief twisted 



244 T IIE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 

around his head and his shaggy hair standing 
erect. 

At such schools as these, the greater part of 
the Texans learned all they knew from books, 
but the Americans had private schools of their 
own, or sent their children to the United States 
to be educated. 

But as time went on the Mexican Govern- 
ment grew jealous of the American power in 
Texas, and feared that the United States would 
lay some claim to the country in view of the 
great number of their citizens settled there. 
Besides this, the slave-owners of Texas carried 
on a profitable trade in negroes, introducing 
them into the colony under the name of servants 
since slavery was forbidden. 

Owing to these and other causes, in 1830 
the Mexican Government issued an order for- 
bidding any people from the United States to 
settle in Texas, and any further trade in slaves. 

The Texans were greatly perplexed by this 
order, but settlers still continued to come, and 
the trouble increased. The Americans called 
themselves citizens of Texas by adoption, and 



THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 245 

sympathized with the State in her disagreement 
with Mexico. 

All the Southern States of the Union 
watched the contest with eagerness, and openly- 
declared their sympathy for the Texans, know- 
ing that in so doing they could best serve their 
own interests as slave-holders. 

Finally, urged on by the spirit of American 
independence, by the great influence of the slave- 
owners, and by the frequent acts of Mexican in- 
justice, Texas boldly announced her independ- 
ence, and declared herself free from Mexican rule. 

War immediately followed, the Texans being 
commanded by the American General Houston 
and the Mexicans by their President, Santa Anna. 
After a year's fighting, Santa Anna was taken 
prisoner at the battle of San Jacinto, and agreed 
to acknowledge the independence of Texas. 

This struggle was watched with great inter- 
est by Americans, those of the North and those 
of the South both feeling that if Texas gained 
her independence it would only be a short time 
before she would apply for admission into the 
Union, and while this was considered very de- 



246 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 

sirable by the Southern States, as increasing the 
power of slavery, it was held equally undesirable 
by the Northern States for the same reason. 

Texas held the position of an independent 
republic for nine years, her entire separation 
from Mexico being acknowledged by the Unit- 
ed States and several European governments, 
although Mexico herself never fully admitted 
that the new State was quite lost to her. 

When the time actually came to discuss the 
question of allowing the Texan Republic to en- 
ter the Union, all the old feelings of anger were 
aroused. 

The Northern States bitterly opposed the 
admission of so large a slave-holding territory, 
while the Southern States tried every means in 
their power to bring the new country in, feeling 
sure that such an increase of land and slaves 
would make their own power in the nation great- 
er and more enduring. There were many fierce 
debates in Congress, and the question of the ex- 
tension of slavery, and the probability of a war 
with Mexico were argued over and over again. 

Finally, when the vote was cast, it was 



THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 247 

found that Southern influence had prevailed, 
and Texas was admitted to the Union as a 
slave State on December 27, 1845. 

The Texans and the people of the South 
rejoiced, the North looked gloomy, and Mexico 
at once determined upon a war with the United 
States. 

Texas was the twenty-eighth State admit- 
ted into the Union, and included a territory 
one-third as large as that embraced in the thir- 
teen original Colonies. It contained vast natu- 
ral resources, and its people were already filled 
with that spirit of liberty and progress which 
had been the means of raising the United 
States, in so short a time, to such an impor- 
tant position among the nations of the earth. 

Such a State could not fail to be of lasting 
benefit to the Union ; but this could not be 
seen at first, for no sooner had the new terri- 
tory been openly acknowledged as a part of the 
American Republic, than her frontiers were in- 
vaded by a hostile army, and the United States 
found that they must fight for their new State 
at the point of the sword. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 



When the empire of Montezuma came to an 
end, and Spanish soldiers and priests united to 
stamp out Mexican individuality and make that 
fair home of the Aztecs only a province of 
Spain, it seemed to the world that the con- 
quered country would never again rise to be of 
any importance among the nations of the earth. 
Its fertile valleys, teeming with tropical fruits ; 
its temperate uplands, rich in harvests of grain ; 
and its snow-capped mountain-ranges, hiding 
awav inexhaustible treasures of sfold and silver 
— all seemed but the property of the great king 
across the seas, whose hardy captains and ad- 
venturous soldiery had made themselves immor- 
tal names by thus securing for their sovereign 
one of the fairest portions of the New World. 
For three hundred years Mexico remained 




AT PALO ALTO. 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 249 

a possession of the Spanish crown, and during 
that time it experienced so many changes, that 
at the end it seemed like a new country and a 
new people. The simple faith and government 
of the Aztecs had long since disappeared, leav- 
ing in their stead the ceremonial worship of the 
Roman Church and the innumerable laws and 
law-officers of the Spanish nation. 

The Aztecs, as a race, had become so mixed 
with the Spaniards that the two races had 
merged into one, in which the Spanish lan- 
guage, religion, and law were the leading feat- 
ures ; and although the Indian still kept many 
of his characteristics, Mexico was Spanish 
throughout its length and breadth, and the 
ancient glory of the Aztecs had ceased to be 
anything more than a name. 

The American Revolution had given to the 
Spanish Colonies in North and South America 
the example of a successful attempt on the part 
of a distant province to overthrow the authority 
of the ruling powers, and the French Revolu- 
tion, which followed soon after, showed to the 
world that, no matter how powerful or long- 



250 THE MEXICAN WAR. 

established a government might be, it must be 
changed if the will of the people so declared. 
With these two examples in mind, and urged 
on by the abuses which had crept into the gov- 
ernment and by the dislike of the reigning 
Spanish monarch, Mexico declared her inde- 
pendence of Spain in 182 1, and was recognized 
as an independent power by the United States 
and the nations of Europe. 

The new republic included Texas and the 
country west of the Rio Grande ; and, therefore, 
when Texas was admitted to the Union, al- 
though she had maintained her independence 
for nine years, Mexico still considered her as 
her own property, and had no intention of giv- 
ing her up without a struggle. Added to this, 
Texas claimed that the Rio Grande was her 
western boundary, while Mexico insisted that 
her territory extended to the Nueces. There 
was, therefore, a space of a hundred miles wide 
between the two rivers which, on the annexa- 
tion of Texas, both the United States and Mex- 
ico laid claim to. 

As it was well known that Mexico would 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 25 I 

resent the admission of Texas into the Ameri- 
can Union, General Taylor was sent to the 
frontier with troops to defend the new terri- 
tory from the expected invasion of the Mexi- 
cans. 

General Taylor established a military depot 
at Point Isabel, and then, going on twenty miles 
farther, built Fort Brown on the northern bank 
of the Rio Grande, directly opposite Matamoras 
and within cannon-shot of the Mexican artillery. 
On May 7, 1846, while Taylor was returning 
to Fort Brown from Point Isabel, whither he 
had gone to meet an expected attack of the 
enemy, he was met at Palo Alto by a body of 
Mexicans, drawn up in battle-array and prepared 
to dispute his passage. The Mexicans outnum- 
bered their foe more than three times, but they 
were driven from their position, and the victo- 
rious Americans spent the night encamped upon 
the battlefield. 

They left the plains of Palo Alto early the 
next morning, and at two o'clock again met the 
enemy, at Resaca de la Palma, about three miles 
from Fort Brown. Again the Mexicans were 



2 52 THE MEXICAN WAR. 

obliged to retreat, and Taylor proceeded to 
Fort Brown, which for seven days had been 
under a bombardment from the Mexican bat- 
teries across the river. 

The news of these two victories was re- 
ceived with the wildest enthusiasm in the 
United States, and as the battles had taken 
place on what was claimed as American soil, 
Congress made a formal declaration of war, 
saying that it existed by the act of the Re- 
public of Mexico. 

War was immediately prepared for on a 
large scale, and it was decided to invade Mexico 
in several different directions. General Taylor 
was to proceed to Monterey, General Scott was 
to capture Vera Cruz, and then march to the 
Mexican capital, and a force from the North was 
to invade New Mexico and California. 

Ten days after the battle of Resaca de la 
Palma, Taylor crossed the Rio Grande, cap- 
tured Matamoras, and began his march into the 
interior. The country was hostile and the 
march tedious, as town after town had to be 
taken and garrisoned, and the troops were con- 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 253 

stantly annoyed by roving bands of guerillas, 
who harassed them at every point. 

In the gray of the morning, or the heat of 
noonday, or when at night the tired soldier lay 
down to take a few hours needed rest, the dark 
eyes of the Mexican might be seen glancing 
through the intervening branches, their look of 
hatred revealing the Indian cunning and pa- 
tience which would let no chance or time escape 
the moment for revenge. 

Monterey, situated on the high road from the 
Rio Grande to the City of Mexico, was pro- 
tected on the north by the citadel, and in the 
rear by two strongly fortified hills. It was gar- 
risoned by ten thousand troops, under command 
of General Ampudia, and contained a popula- 
tion of fifteen thousand, numbers of whom might 
be relied upon in the event of a siege. 

General Taylor's army approached the city 
on the morning of September 19, 1846, and 
stood in silent admiration before the beautiful 
picture which the unclouded day revealed. 

Monterey rose before their eyes with all the 
beauty of some enchanted place. Against a 



2 54 THE MEXICAN WAR. 

background of wooded heights and white-tow- 
ered hills, gleamed its citadel and parapets and 
towers, while its cathedrals and palaces and 
gorgeous flower-gardens, with the sunlight fall- 
ing over dome and spire, and glistening leaf, 
recalled some dream of fairy-land, where golden 
cities rise at the bidding of the enchanter's 
wand, and the morning mist dissolves to show 
scenes of wonder and delight. 

Taylor approached through the grove of San 
Domingo, but while reconnoitring the city, was 
greeted with the flash of ilame and the roar of 
cannon from the citadel. The sie<re besran on 
the following day, and as part of the force had 
been stationed so as to cut oi\ retreat from the 
city, the Mexicans knew that the siege must 
end for them in victory or capitulation. 

The defence was brave and obstinate, but 
the Americans advanced slowly, carrying for- 
tress after fortress until all the fortifications in 
the rear of the town were in their hands. An 
assault was then made on the lower part of the 
city, the troops advancing slowly, digging their 
way through the stone walls of the houses, in 



i in. MEXICAN WAr. 255 

order to escape the shot and stones that were 
poured down from the roofs. The Mexicans 
received the assault with the greatest coura 
when their ranks were broken they fought hand 
to hand with the invaders, and from <:viy nook 
and corner gleamed the swords and bayonets of 
foes in deadly fight. 

But barricade after barricade was swept 
away, street after street cleared of regulars, 
and square after square emptied of the brave 
defenders, until only the dr.-ind l'l;i/.;i, in the 
centre of the city, remained to the besieged. 

Here the Mexicans spent the last night of 
the siege, while the stars and stripes floated 
from every fortress of Monterey, and the Am- 
erican soldiery slept on their arms after having 
hunted the concealed Mexicans from their hid- 
ing places and forced them to surrender. 

In the morning General Ampudia surren- 
dered, after demanding the honors of war, and 
preparations were at once made to evacuate the 
city. The siege had lasted five days, and at its 
close the city that had looked so beautiful to 
the invading army presented to the eyes of the 



\ 



256 THE MEXICAN WAR. 

conquerors only a scene of ruin and distress. 
The castle walls were blackened with smoke, the 
towers were shattered, the cathedrals pierced 
with balls and shot, the palaces ruined and 
desolate, the gardens defaced and trampled 
down, while the brave inhabitants, who had 
tried so hard to defend their homes, now tra- 
versed the streets with sad and gloomy coun- 
tenances, gathering together the little that re- 
mained to them, or searching among the dead 
and dying for the faces of their friends. 

And as the disheartened Mexicans left the 
city, and moved slowly across the plain on their 
way to the capital, it seemed to many of the 
Americans, who watched them from the heights 
above, that considering the homes that had 
been made desolate, and the children who had 
been left fatherless, the victory had been dearly 
won, although the foe had outnumbered them 
two to one, and the defences of Monterey had 
seemed as impregnable as the eagle's eyrie in 
the clefts of the mountains above. 

The army that was to invade Mexico from 
the North was none the less successful. Santa 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 257 

Fe and New Mexico were captured, and Cali- 
fornia, which contained a large number of 
Americans, first declared its independence of 
Mexico, and then raised the stars and stripes, 
thus giving the whole Pacific coast into the 
hands of the United States. 

But there was to be one more terrible battle 
before the Rio Grande was left in undisputed 
possession of the Americans. 

A great part of Taylor's army had been sent 
to join General Scott on the coast, and Santa 
Anna, commanding the flower of the Mexican 
army, determined to route the remainder. 

Taylor had taken a position at Buena Vista, 
a narrow mountain pass, and waited anxiously 
with his little army for the appearance of the 
Mexican general and his thousands of troops. 

On February 22d, Santa Anna and his men 
approached. They came pouring through the 
gorges and over the hills, outnumbering the 
Americans three to one, sure of victory and of 
retrieving the disgrace of Monterey. 

The Americans waited the attack calmly, and 

greeted the white flag which Santa Anna sent 
*7 



258 THE MEXICAN WAR. 

with a demand for surrender, with shouts of 
derision. 

The battle began with great fierceness, and 
waged during the entire day of the 23d. But 
during the night Santa Anna, discouraged by 
his great loss of men, drew off his troops and 
retreated toward the capital. 

This engagement decided the American oc- 
cupation of the Rio Grande, and shortly after, 
General Scott began his operations on the coast. 

Vera Cruz was the first city attacked. It 
was defended on the sea-side by the celebrated 
castle of San Juan d'Ulloa, which had been 
erected in the early part of the seventeenth 
century at a cost of four millions of dollars. It 
stood about a thousand yards off shore, upon a 
rocky reef, and commanded all the channels that 
led inland. But Scott, instead of trying to take 
his ships past the fortress, landed his troops in 
surf-boats farther down the coast, and came up 
to Vera Cruz from the south. He surrounded 
the city with trenches, and erected batteries, 
and then sent a message demanding the surren- 
der of the place. 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 259 

This was refused, and fire was at once 
opened from the land batteries and war vessels 
in the harbor. The city and castle were raked 
with shot and shell for four days. The be- 
sieged returned fire for fire, but with little effect, 
and as day after day passed, and their fair city 
was in danger of being utterly destroyed, their 
courage failed, and not waiting for the assault 
that was being' planned against them, they sent 
messengers to General Scott proposing terms 
of surrender. 

Two days afterward, March 29, 1847, the 
American flag floated over the battlements of 
Vera Cruz, and Scott began to make prepara- 
tions for his march to the capital. 

By this time it seemed to the Mexicans that 
the Americans were invincible, but with desper- 
ate courage they resolved to beat them back at 
every step. 

Scott led this army by the great national 
road, leading from Vera Cruz to the capital, 
and for two hundred miles the little force gal- 
lantly climbed the steep mountain-roads, guard- 
ed at every pass by the wary enemy, and at- 



260 THE MEXICAN WAR. 

tacked at every point by the regulars of Santa 
Anna or the guerillas of the mountains. 

At Cerro Gordo, fifty miles from Vera Cruz, 
the Americans carried by assault a rocky pass 
that had been considered impregnable by the 
Mexicans. This was a most decisive victory, 
as the position commanded the only road that 
led through the mountain fastnesses into the 
interior. 

On went the victorious army up the rugged 
slopes of the Cordilleras, capturing castle after 
castle, and fortress after fortress. Puebla, a 
town of eighty thousand people, surrendered 
without attempting defence, although Scott's 
army numbered only five thousand, and was in 
the midst of a hostile country, and far from 
friends and supplies. 

Twice the United States offered terms of 
peace, but Mexico stubbornly refused, and after 
being reinforced by troops from Vera Cruz, the 
undaunted Americans kept on their way up the 
mountains. 

The army crossed the crest of the Cordil- 
leras, and paused to look down upon the valley 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 261 

below. Far away extended the green fields, 
beautiful lakes, and picturesque villages that 
surrounded the approach to the Mexican cap- 
ital. Here and there the plain was dotted by 
low hills, crowned with fortresses, indicating 
that they guarded the roads to the city. 
Strongly fortified causeways led across the 
marshes and over the beds of ancient lakes to 
the massive city gates, and the giant fortresses 
of Churubusco and Chapultepec frowned down 
directly in the path of the invading army. 

At that time the city seemed as beautiful 
as in the days of its ancient splendor. Its 
cathedral spires and gleaming towers, its beau- 
tiful lakes and magnificent groves, the wide 
fertile plains that surrounded it, and the snow- 
capped summits of the Cordilleras towering 
above all, combined to make a scene of rare 
beauty, and one that must have appealed 
strongly to the hearts so bent upon its de- 
struction. 

But although the approaches to the city 
were considered impregnable, the American ad- 
vance was irresistible ! One by one the strong 



262 THE MEXICAN WAR. 

fortresses were subdued, and the defences to 
the causeways destroyed. The castle of Cha- 
pultepec was carried by assault on September 
13th, the first to fall being the boys from the 
military school, and the victorious army swept 
resistlessly into the suburbs. 

Here Santa Anna commanded the citadel, 
and swept the approach with a fire so terrible 
that advance seemed impossible. 

But one column after another slowly made 
its way forward, until the main gate was finally 
carried by assault. By this time night had 
fallen, and the Mexican forces withdrew to the 
citadel, and held a council of war, in which they 
decided to leave the city in the darkness, after 
first freeing the prisons, and arming the prison- 
ers and inhabitants, so they might inflict as 
much injury as possible upon the Americans. 
In the morning, therefore, messengers arrived 
from the civil authorities of the city asking 
for terms of surrender. But General Scott re- 
fused any terms, and marched his army into 
the city. 

The house-tops were covered with bands of 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 263 

convicts, deserters, thieves, and lepers, who be- 
gan pouring- down fire and stones upon the 
Americans, until it became necessary to turn 
the cannon upon some of the houses, sweep 
them clear of their troublesome inmates, and 
then give them up to plunder. The troops 
then filed quietly through the broad streets, 
and at seven o'clock, September 14, 1847, the 
Stars and Stripes were floating over the Grand 
Plaza. Hundreds of Mexicans watched the vic- 
torious army as it took up its position in the 
great square, all looking with eagerness upon 
the soldiers who had toiled two hundred miles 
up the rocky mountain roads, and forced their 
way into the city that had not harbored a for- 
eign foe for over three hundred years. 

From the railings of some of the houses 
hung various flags — French, German, Spanish, 
and Portuguese — signifying that the inmates 
were foreigners, and demanded protection as 
such ; from others depended the white banners 
of peace, sometimes in the shape of a woman's 
lace scarf or dainty pocket-handkerchief, and 
everywhere anxious eyes peered from win- 



264 THE MEXICAN WAR. 

dows and balconies, as if seeking to know the 
fate that might be in store for their beauti- 
ful city. 

But General Scott was not waging war upon 
women and children, and no sooner had he 
taken possession of the capital than he pro- 
ceeded to restore order and quiet among the 
excited inhabitants. The troops were quar- 
tered, property respected, hospitals established, 
and by the morning of the 15th peace once 
more reigned in the city. 

Arrangements were at once begun for a 
treaty of peace, which was signed on Febru- 
ary 2, 1848. By the terms of this treaty the 
United States secured New Mexico — which 
Texas claimed as a part of her territory — Ari- 
zona, and California, placing the boundary be- 
tween Texas and Mexico at the Rio Grande, 
and granting to Mexico all the fortified towns 
which the Americans held on Mexican soil, and 
the sum of fifteen millions of dollars. 

Thus the United States, by the war with 
Mexico, gained possession of all the country 
north of the Rio Grande and Gila River, and 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 265 

extended their territory to the Pacific in an 
almost unbroken line from Florida. 

The question at once arose whether the 
new territory should hold slaves, the South 
pleading for the extension of slavery, while the 
North claimed that, as Mexico had abolished 
slavery, all territory obtained from her should 
be free. This question was not settled for 
some time, and although when California was 
admitted to the Union she came in as a free 
State, it still remained open, and was finally 
disposed of by allowing the new States that 
might be formed out of the territory to decide 
the matter for themselves. 

The Spanish inhabitants of New Mexico 
and California strongly objected to American 
rule, and more than once rose in rebellion 
against their new owners. But their wishes 
met with little respect. 

American soldiers were camped in the lit- 
tle villages that had grown up around the 
Spanish missions, and paid small regard to the 
Mexican feeling of reverence for their old homes. 
Troops were sometimes stationed in "the very 



266 THE MEXICAN WAR. 

chapels, and when the Mexicans and Indians 
asked for their removal they were met with 
scorn. 

The Indians from the first showed intense 
dislike of the new possessors, who expressed 
no desire to establish friendly relations with 
them. 

Mexicans and Indians were alike driven 
from their homes, and forced to make settle- 
ments in places that were considered not so 
desirable by the Americans, and in many cases 
the little farms and villages that once held such 
happy and peaceful communities were utterly 
destroyed, while new occupants, under the pro- 
tection of a powerful government, drove the 
rightful owners away without offering them any 
compensation whatever. 

For years after the Mexican war the terri- 
tories of Arizona and New Mexico were scenes 
of outrage and wrong committed by the agents 
of the United States, and although the cam- 
paign in Mexico gained great military honors 
for the Union, nothing can ever wipe out the 
disgrace that followed, when a great and free 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 267 

country allowed her new subjects to be robbed 
and plundered and treated with scorn without 
ever raising a hand in their defence. 

The oppressed people looked sadly back to 
the time when they were a part of Mexico, and 
their little villages were the abodes of peace and 
plenty, and their cottages covered with vines, 
and gardens bright with flowers, and lanes bor- 
dered with figs and apricots, had never yet 
known the presence of the unwelcome Ameri- 
can ; and the children sighed in vain for the old 
days when, clinging to the robes of the kindly 
priests, they went happily up and down the 
streets without fear of those strange faces 
whose coming was destined to change all 
things for them, and send them forth from their 
pretty homes to be wanderers in distant places, 
where no hand would be stretched out helpfully 
toward them, or any voice bid them welcome. 



CHAPTER XV. 

SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTHWEST BOUNDARY. 

To the north of California the Pacific coast is 
so ruorored and uninviting that not one of the 
early navigators of Spain could be found daring 
enough to pierce through its lofty sea-walls and 
enter its rocky harbors. Curious eyes may 
have been turned many a time toward the 
white sea-line and the lofty mountain-peaks, 
that seemed to rise suddenly up from the 
waves, but for years and years the vast region 
in the interior remained a mystery to every 
seaman whose staunch vessel neared the in- 
hospitable coast, and the snow-covered moun- 
tain-tops still continued the only familiar ob- 
jects within the white man's knowledge. The 
Indians told many a strange story about this 
beautiful land, whose magnificent forests, rich 
valleys, and great rushing rivers seemed to 
them the fairest in all the world. 



SETTLEMENT OF NORTHWEST BOUNDARY. 269 

They said that ages and ages ago this land 
had been peopled by giants, who fought for its 
possession until the race died out, and that the 
great, silent mountains, whose slopes were en- 
circled with ever-changing and fantastic clouds, 
and whose summits were white with eternal 
snows, were the monuments which these old 
combatants raised above their dead ; and that 
after the last great battle of the giants, when 
there remained not one to carry on the conflict, 
the Indian had claimed the land as his lawful 
heritage, and loved it with a love as great as 
that of the fierce race who had given their lives 
for it. 

The Indians had many a conflict with the 
whites before they surrendered to them the 
fruitful valleys that seemed of right to belong 
to them alone ; and it is no wonder that they 
fought for this land and loved it so well, for 
within its borders may be found everything that 
can make a country rich and beautiful. 

From the edge of the sea up to the region 
of snows stand the most magnificent forests that 
are to be found in the world. Pine, cedar, 



270 SETTLEMENT OF NORTHWEST BOUNDARY. 

fir, tamarack and yew, with their varied and 
eternal green, stretch away up the mountain 
slopes, while underneath their great overarching 
branches grow the vine, maple, mountain-ash, 
hazel, willow, and the long slender shoots of 
innumerable kinds of creepers and climbing 
vines. 

From the giant pines hang down great 
glossy cones, a yard long, and the yew and 
juniper blend their scarlet and blue berries to- 
gether with the most brilliant effect, and gleam 
through the swinging moss that droops down 
from the trees, like the plumage of some rare 
tropical bird. 

Beneath the great trees that rise hundreds 
of feet above stands the thick growth of fern, 
through whose waving plumes shine the fierce 
eyes of the panther and California lion, while the 
black bear and catamount prowl here and there 
through the almost impenetrable jungle of un- 
derbrush seeking for their prey. Countless 
flocks of swans flash their white wings above 
the tree-tops, and mass themselves against the 
brilliant blue sky, looking like soft floating 



SETTLEMENT OF NORTHWEST BOUNDARY. 271 

clouds gleaming with sunshine ; and the many- 
rivers that come down from the mountains are 
filled with innumerable kinds of fishes, and their 
waters covered with the white geese, ducks, 
and other water-fowl that frequent these soli- 
tudes. 

Clear, tranquil lakes are scattered all over 
this region, lying silent in the midst of the 
black forests, and known for centuries only to 
the stars that shone down into their depths, and 
the eyes of the Indian children who loved to 
look down into the placid waters., and watch the 
gleaming fish dart hither and thither through 
the tops of the great trees that had been buried 
there ages before by some fearful avalanche or 
mountain-slide. 

Outside these forests, for miles and miles, 
stretch fields of wild hyacinth blossoms, mak- 
ing the valleys blue for months; and over these 
beautiful lowlands once roamed the careless 
and happy Indians, taking no thought, for the 
greater part of the year, of anything but the 
beauty and richness that lay around them. 

When the wet season set in dark and 



272 SETTLEMENT OF NORTHWEST BOUNDARY. 

dreary, and the birds sat with folded wings in 
the tree-tops, and the hyacinth blooms hung 
heavy with rain-drops, or when winter came, 
and the white swans had flown southward, and 
the deep river canons were filled with snow, and 
the forests gleamed in their mail of sleet and 
ice, then the Indian would retreat to his uncom- 
fortable quarters and shiver hopelessly through 
the desolate time of frost and blight ; but for the 
greater part of the year life meant to him only 
a long holiday, with blue skies, sweet flowers, 
days of pleasant fishing, and nights of un- 
troubled sleep under the great brilliant stars. 

Their children, who knew nothing of any 
land or people save their own, wandered 
throughout the length and breadth of the coun- 
try with the freedom of the gentle-eyed fawns. 
The smooth carpet of pine needles made easy 
walking- for their bare brown feet, and the rivers 
brought to them rare treasures from their moun- 
tain sources, pretty stones, floating bark for 
their tiny canoes, and bits of shining quartz and 
metal whose yellow gleam gave them no hint of 
its priceless value. 



SETTLEMENT OF NORTHWEST BOUNDARY. 273 

All sights and sounds were to them only a 
part of the general happiness, even the shadow 
of the eagle darkening the lake, the scream of 
the panther in the moon-lit jungle, or the growl 
of the bear in the gloomy forest meaning only a 
chance for some brave exploit which should be 
told in the council of the elders, and listened to 
with admiration and respect. 

Never were there happier lives than those 
of these Indian children, whose homes were 
roofed by the great sheltering trees, whose food 
was the fish and berries that were had for the 
asking, and whose slumber was the sweetest 
when taken on the spicy boughs of the pine or 
balsam. 

But in time the knowledge of this fair land 
came to the white man, and traveller after 
traveller visited the beautiful valleys, climbed 
the mountains, and wandered through the for- 
ests, and at last, as was their way, the whites 
claimed all the land for their own, and denied 
the Indians any rights whatever. 

And because of the discovery of the mouth 
of the Columbia River by an American seaman, 



274 SETTLEMENT OF NORTHWEST BOUNDARY. 

and the explorations of Lewis and Clarke, the 
United States claimed all that territory through 
which the great river flowed as a part of the 
Union. 

Besides this, the purchase of Florida settled 
clearly that the lands lying along the Pacific 
coast to the north of California were included in 
the Louisiana purchase, and thus it is seen that 
here was another reason why the Columbia 
River region should be considered as a part of 
the United States. 

But for many years, England, whose sub- 
jects had also explored this region, would not 
admit this claim, and the northwestern boun- 
dary line between the United States and British 
America remained for a lone time unsettled. 

The United States claimed the country as 
far north as the fifty-fourth parallel, while the 
British government insisted that the forty-ninth 
parallel should be the dividing line. 

There was therefore a large tract of country 
that was claimed at the same time by two differ- 
ent nations, and this gave rise to innumerable 
disputes. 



SETTLEMENT OF NORTHWEST BOUNDARY. 275 

Great Britain established fur companies in 
this region, and practically held possession of it; 
but as the Americans also had fur companies 
further south, this only increased the difficulty. 

Hunters and trappers in the employ of 
American and British companies roamed over 
the whole country, and as emigrants from the 
United States began settling along the coast, 
and in the river valleys, the trouble became 
greater each year, and it was readily seen that 
the question of boundary must be decided. 

The country had taken its name from the 
quantities of wild rice that grew along the coast, 
called in Spanish, oregano, and for many years 
the Oregonians, as they called themselves, had 
the greatest difficulties to contend with in their 
attempts to settle that wild and uncivilized land. 
For not only did they have to defend their little 
homes from the treachery of the Indians, but 
they had likewise to protect their property from 
the lawless hands of those who stood ready to 
grasp any portion of their hardly won wealth, 
for they well knew that, no matter how great 
their grievance might be, it was quite impossi- 



276 SETTLEMENT OF NORTHWEST BOUNDARY. 

ble to hope for punishment to follow the guilty, 
when law and order did not exist. A man might 
commit the greatest crime against the commun- 
ity, and then claim the protection of his country 
to free him, and since both Americans and Eng- 
lish were always ready to deny each other's 
right to the soil, the early days of settlement in 
Oregon were days full of trouble and dispute. 

The American settlers who had journeyed 
thither, lured by the pleasing accounts of the 
promise of the land, early declared their inten- 
tion of remaining a part of the United States. 
And when the time came in which they saw 
that the settlement of the difficulty could not be 
far off, and that probably a war would precede 
the decision, these hardy Oregonians met to- 
gether under their outstretching pines, and pro- 
claimed their allegiance to the United States, 
and declared that they would forever refuse to 
be considered a part of England. And in order 
to make their intentions as plain as possible, 
they raised an army, coined money out of pure 
gold, stamped with a sheaf of wheat and . a 
beaver, to show their industry and plenty, and 



SETTLEMENT OF NORTHWEST BOUNDARY. 277 

sent one of their number three thousand miles 
across the mountains and plains to beg Con- 
gress not to yield their fertile valleys up to 
England. 

But their courage and loyalty would have 
availed little, and Great Britain and the United 
States would probably have settled the boun- 
dary question only after a tedious and unneces- 
sary war, had not the trouble with Mexico 
turned the thoughts of Americans in a new 
direction. 

With the hope of acquiring a vast new terri- 
tory in the South, the old claim to the North 
did not seem so important to the United States, 
and greatly to the disappointment and anger of 
many Americans, England was allowed to take 
quiet possession of all the country north of the 
forty-ninth parallel. 

This left the Oregonians members of the 
Union, but lost to the United States hundreds 
of thousands of miles of valuable territory, and 
was far from giving satisfaction to those Ameri- 
cans who had considered the claims of Great 
Britain as unjust. 



278 SETTLEMENT OF NORTHWEST BOUNDARY. 

But however unfavorable such a decision 
might be, a treaty making the forty-ninth par- 
allel the boundary between the United States 
and British America, was signed in 1846, and 
from that time the northern limits of the Union 
have remained unchanged. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 

In those old Spanish romances which filled the 
hearts of Spanish cavaliers with such a passion- 
ate love of adventure, the story of California, 
queen of the Northern Amazons, was read and 
studied with such absorbing interest that it soon 
became familiar to every youth. 

And perhaps of all the legends which led to 
the exploration and ownership of so large a part 
of America by Spain, none held so important a 
place as this. 

It was the belief in the existence of such a 
queen, that led Cabeca de Vaca in his fruitless 
wanderings through deserts and wildernesses, 
and his reports of the Indian legends only in- 
creased the interest of his friends in that won- 
derful land which no one yet had succeeded in 
discovering. 



280 THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 

The stories of the Aztecs also all told of a 
region in the North, ruled by a beautiful 
woman, and rich with gold and precious stones, 
the abundance of which made their own almost 
inexhaustible stores seem poor in comparison. 
All the Southern tribes confirmed the reports of 
the Aztecs, and agreed in their belief in Cali- 
fornia and her fabulous wealth. 

It was supposed that Cabeca de Vaca actu- 
ally passed within the boundaries of this region 
on his way to the Gulf of California, and the 
visit of the Spanish missionary, Marcos de 
Nizza, to the same region, strengthened the re- 
port of De Vaca. 

Nizza described a country rich in cities, 
which resembled those of Cathay and Cipango 
in grandeur and magnificence, and which were 
inhabited by a civilized race of Indians — the 
descendants of a beautiful queen who, in by- 
gone ages, had made this place her home. 

She had appeared suddenly in the midst of 
a barbarous people who then dwelt in that 
region, and making for herself a home in a 
green place in the mountains near where these 




WASHING FOR GOLD. 



THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 28l 

savages were encamped, soon won for herself 
their love and devotion. They paid tribute to 
her of grain and skins, and gold, and when a 
great famine came which threatened to kill off 
all the tribe, she opened her store-houses, and 
gave of her abundance, so that the land was 
saved from desolation, and the people did not 
lack food, although the drought continued so 
long that the ground was burned to ashes, and 
the rivers dried up, and the cattle perished on 
the plains. 

The son of this beautiful queen founded a 
new race, which dwelt in cities and knew many- 
wonderful arts. Their gold and gems were 
wrought into exquisite ornaments, and the king 
was always served with golden dishes, and lived 
in palaces as gorgeous as those of the Kublai 
Khan. 

But although the stories of Nizza roused 
afresh the interest of the Spanish adventurers, 
and new expeditions were sent out, no such 
country as he described could be found, and dis- 
couraged by hostile tribes and barren soil, the 
travellers always returned disheartened to the 



282 THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 

fertile valleys of Mexico, and solaced themselves 
by the gold there, which, if less abundant, was 
at least more certain. 

As the years passed on, the old stories of 
de Vaca and Nizza came to be regarded as 
fables, and except for the presence of some 
strange ruins along the Rio Gila and Colorado, 
the fame of the beautiful queen would have been 
quite forgotten. But for hundreds of years the 
Indians in that part of the country told the story 
of this queen and her descendants, and although 
men had long ceased to believe in the reports 
of the gold and gems, the story of California 
never quite faded from their minds. 

The conquerors of Mexico and Peru found 
it much easier to take possession of the wealth 
of Montezuma and the Incas, than to explore 
inhospitable regions, and search for treasure 
that would have to be dug out of the earth, and 
the deliofhtful climate of Mexico was much 
more to their taste than the barren sea-coast of 
California. 

They left this region, therefore, to the few 
tribes of Indians who wandered over it, and 



THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 283 

contented themselves by sending out priests to 
establish missions, and bring the savages to 
the knowledge of the truth as held by Spanish 
cavaliers, namely, that so long as gold and pre- 
cious stones refused to bless the land, the In- 
dian might keep it for his own. 

But the priests did better work than the 
Crown had meant, and slowly gathered the 
miserable savages, who were of the lowest class 
of Indians, around the little missions and taught 
them ways of peace and comfort. 

These sharp-eyed priests soon discovered 
that the old romance of California was not all a 
dream of some inventive writer, for they found 
that the river-beds and mountains held precious 
stores of shining gold. But they believed that 
the herding of cattle was a surer and healthier 
means of wealth than digging in the earth 
after hidden minerals, and so kept the secret 
safe, and taught the Indians how to care for 
their herds, and prepare the skins for market, 
and cultivate the beautiful valleys that lie be- 
tween the snow-capped mountains. 

They taught them also to live together in 



284 THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 

brotherly love and kindness, and the little mis- 
sions soon came to be fair places of comfort and 
peace ; and the good priests blessed their dark- 
skinned converts, and closed their eyes in quiet 
content at last, believing that the curse of gold 
would never come upon their happy land. For 
more than a hundred years it seemed that their 
wish would be fulfilled, for California still re- 
mained peopled only by the Indians, whose 
knowledge of the wishes and ambitions of the 
white race was learned entirely from the devoted 
and self-sacrificing priests. And thus it hap- 
pened that, while the Indians of Mexico were 
degenerating by contact with Spanish influence, 
those of California were being elevated by the 
same influence unspoiled by the love of gold. 

Sixteen important missions, with more than 
forty villages dependent upon them, were es- 
tablished by the Jesuits in Upper and Lower 
California, and it was not until after the expul- 
sion of this order by the Spanish Government 
that Spanish influence became hurtful to the 
Indians. After that, the prosperity and morals 
of the mission Indians began to suffer from 



THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 285 

contact with the whites, and as gradually the 
missions ceased to exert their former control, 
the natives became more and more corrupt, and 
copied the vices of the white man as faithfully 
as they had tried to copy his virtues, and with 
much greater success. 

With the establishment of the Republic of 
Mexico, California passed from under Spanish 
rule, and as about this time emigration from the 
United States began to come into the country 
from the East, the native Californians soon be- 
came familiar with ideas of freedom and self- 
government, and even formed a project for free- 
ing themselves from Mexico, and setting up a 
separate government. 

The first American colony in California con- 
sisted chiefly of hunters and trappers from the 
Rocky Mountains and waters of the Columbia, 
and as these men were hardy and independent, 
and always ready for excitement, they had no 
difficulty in taking the lead with the Californians 
and making them attempt any measures that 
they suggested. 

It was the presence of these Americans that 



286 THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 

made the conquest of California by the United 
States, at the time of the Mexican war, such an 
easy matter; and as the Californians were con- 
tinually quarrelling among themselves, and their 
Mexican rulers managed affairs so badly that 
things kept going from bad to worse, it perhaps 
excuses the injustice of the seizure of California 
by the Americans, a little, to reflect that after 
all the condition of many of the people could 
not be made worse, while there was a chance 
that the incorporation of the State with the 
American Union miqrht make it better. 

The old missions had been so neglected, 
that many of the mission Indians had been 
driven among the wild tribes whom they excited 
to bitter enmity against their old friends, and on 
the other hand, the Spanish officers drove off 
hundreds of the converts from their lands, keep- 
ing all the cattle which rightfully belonged to 
them, and performing such acts of injustice 
generally, that the two races were fast becom- 
ing deadly foes. 

After the American occupation of Califor- 
nia, the Indians still suffered from the selfish- 



THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 287 

ness and tyranny of the whites, who gradually 
took possession of all the fairest portions of the 
country, leaving only the mountains and barren 
parts as places of retreat for the natives, and 
finally, as was the case in every other part of 
the New World, the Indian discovered that he 
had no rights to lands or cattle which the white 
man might wish to claim, and fell back into his 
old ways of living, and became once more a 
foe to the white race, and an enemy to civil- 
ization. 

As great as the acquisition of the new terri- 
tory seemed, the United States had really no 
idea of the wealth of the country they had so 
unjustly wrenched from the Mexicans. 

It is true, no one had ever forgotten the old 
fables of the golden mountains, and mines of 
precious stones, but every one really supposed 
that the wealth of Northern California lay en- 
tirely in its healthful climate, and the great 
facilities for raising cattle. 

The Californians were the hardiest of all the 
Mexican races, and their success in herding, to- 
gether with the abundance of good pasture, 



288 THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 

made the country seem a most valuable posses- 
sion. 

From their earliest years the children of this 
race were taught the use of the lasso. As soon 
as a child could stand alone he was given a toy 
lasso, and taught to throw it around the neck of 
a kitten ; next he would use it upon the dog, 
and then upon a goat or calf, and so on until 
he was able to mount his wild horse and hunt 
the panther and grizzly bear. 

Thus there grew up in this region the most 
splendid horsemen in the world. And as the 
Americans were not slow in learning the use of 
their weapons, and soon rivalled them in the 
chase, California, before its cession to the United 
States, was one of the most famous hunting 
grounds in America. 

But in the same month in which the treaty 
of peace between Mexico and the United States 
was signed, February, 1848, an event occurred 
which changed all things in California as sud- 
denly as if a magician had passed his wand over 
the land, and made its fertile plains and million 
flocks vanish utterly into the sea. 



THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 289 

As soon as men knew of this wonder they 
left their herds to the wolves, and their homes 
to the Indians, and their vineyards to lie neg- 
lected forever, and started with one accord 
toward the hill country, for there, up among 
the pines on the slopes of the mountains, had 
been found heaps of those glittering particles 
which the eyes of the old Spanish cavaliers had 
sought so lone in vain. The romances had 
failed to point the way, but the old fables came 
true for all that, and California was found at 
last to be a land of fabulous wealth, with its 
rivers, and hills, and mountains, full of measure- 
less stores of gold. 

In a short time the towns and villages were 
almost entirely deserted, only the women and 
children being left behind, while every man, old 
enough or young enough, had shouldered pick 
and shovel and started for the mines. 

Monterey, San Francisco, San Jose, and 
Santa Cruz, were left almost without a man. 
Shops were closed, buildings left unfinished, 
brick-yards, saw-mills, and ranchos deserted. 

Merchants, lawyers, carpenters, blacksmiths, 



290 THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 

cooks, clerks, herdsmen, and Indians — all 
thronged up the river valleys, and even the 
army and navy service could not keep men 
back. Crews deserted their vessels, volunteers 
in the army and navy left in large bodies for 
the mines, and a captain could only be sure of 
enough men to man his ship by keeping the 
sea between him and San Francisco Harbor, 
as threats of punishment and disgrace alike 
failed to impress the men once they had their 
eyes turned toward the gold regions. 

Tools of any kind brought the most exor- 
bitant prices. Bowls, trays, dishes, and even 
warming-pans, were carried off and used for 
washing gold. All the iron in California was 
worked up into pick-axes, crow-bars, and spades, 
these latter selling for ten, and sometimes fifty 
dollars apiece. 

Food and clothing at once commanded the 
highest prices, but even then there could 
scarcely be found any-one willing to spend time 
so precious in cultivating the ground or pre- 
paring food, and it seemed, during the first 
months of the gold fever, that the old story 



THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 291 

of Midas was repeated, and men must die of 
hunger although surrounded with inexhaustible 
wealth. 

The gold that had lain hidden for thousands 
of years now showed itself everywhere, on river- 
banks and in river-beds, in dry ravines, on rocky 
hill-sides, on the slopes of the mountains, and 
in the valleys of the principal streams. 

The gold-diggings looked like immense 
gypsy encampments. Tents, wigwams, bark- 
huts, and bush-arbors served as homes for the 
eager miners who went about their work clad 
in the most fantastic garments, a combination 
of several different national costumes being 
most frequent. Mexican and South American 
articles of dress, brought in by steamers from 
Valparaiso and Chili, were sold for fabulous 
prices, and the banks of the streams showed 
the curious picture of men, clothed in the pic- 
turesque fashion of Spanish America, standing 
up to their knees in water, or kneeling down 
on the banks while they sifted out the gold 
from the particles of sand and gravel. 

Nothing was needed for the work but a pick, 



292 THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 

a pan, and a handkerchief, and with these sim- 
ple means hundreds of dollars' worth of gold 
could sometimes be obtained in a single day. 

In those days communication between the 
East and the West was slow and uncertain, and 
for several months after the great discovery 
the Californians and such strangers as chance 
brought into the territory had all the gold to 
themselves. 

Letters from the naval and military depart- 
ments were sent to the General Government, but 
as the mail was carried by ship, it was months 
before the news of this startling discovery 
reached the Atlantic States. But when it once 
became known that gold had been found in 
California the excitement knew no bounds, and 
it seemed for a time that the East would be de- 
populated. 

Merchants, mechanics, professional men and 
common laborers at once started in immense 
numbers for the West. All those who could 
afford it went by sea, but by far the greater 
number started overland across the continent. 

Four thousand miles of the most difficult 



THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 293 

travelling lay between them and their goal, but 
all fears vanished at the prospect of the wealth 
that awaited them. Mountains and rivers, des- 
erts and forests, and plains infested with hos- 
tile Indians, all had to be passed, to say noth- 
ing of the variety of climate, and the dangers 
from sickness and want and wild beasts of the 
most ferocious kinds. 

And yet, in spite of the fact that the roads 
across the plains were speedily marked by the 
graves of those who had fallen victims to the 
hardships of such a journey, emigration to the 
West did not diminish, but increased more and 
more as time went on and it became certain 
that the supply of gold would not fail for many 
a long year to come. 

Very often families on their way to the mines 
would join together and form a large caravan, 
thus increasing their safety and presenting a 
better defence against the Indians. 

These caravans were furnished with outfits 
as extensive as if they had been starting for a 
voyage into some unknown sea. A compass 
was just as necessary here as on the ocean, and 



294 THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 

some person capable of taking observations to 
find out the latitude and longitude accompanied 
every band of emigrants. Pack-horses and sad- 
dle-horses, bred on the frontier, were provided 
for the men, while the women and children were 
carried in large canvas-covered wagons, that 
wound slowly across the prairies in long lines, 
and at a distance looked like a flock of white 
geese stalking down to the water. 

Medicines, blankets, tools of all kinds, sup- 
plies for every emergency, tents, cooking uten- 
sils, guns, pistols, knives, and powder and shot, 
were all a part of this motley outfit, each ar- 
ticle being equally necessary to the general 
comfort. 

The party generally travelled by day, en- 
camping at night by the banks of some stream, 
where fish could be taken for supper and break- 
fast, or in some secure place in the mountains 
where game was plentiful and means of de- 
fence against the Indians easy. 

On Sunday the caravans not infrequently 
remained in camp part of the day, while divine 
service was held by the minister, who was al- 



THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 295 

ways sure to be found in every large party of 
emigrants ; the camp at this time looking not 
unlike the early New England settlements, with 
the congregation gathered together in the open 
air, and sentinels posted at safe distances to 
warn of the approach of any prowling bands of 
Indians. 

At other times parties of friendly natives, 
whose favor had been obtained by gifts of knives 
and beads and other trinkets, would be allowed 
to come into camp, and listen with awe-struck 
countenances while the white man talked to the 
Great Spirit. 

But for the most part the Indians were hos- 
tile, and this formed one of the greatest ob- 
stacles in crossing the plains. 

Besides the emigration from the East, a tide 
of foreign emigration swept over the land as 
soon as the news of the wonderful discovery 
found its way to Europe. Germans, Poles, 
English, Irish, Scotch, Dutch, and French at 
once took ship for America, and started for the 
gold mines. Travelling across a strange land, 
with no knowledge of the language and customs 



296 THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 

of the natives, and with an almost absurd fear 
of the Indians, these foreigners, under the guid- 
ance of American leaders, presented a curious 
spectacle. With no idea of the vastness of the 
country, when they landed in New York and 
found that more than the width of Europe lay 
between them and the gold-fields, their conster- 
nation was unbounded. And with the strangest 
opinions of the people, their wonder and ignor- 
ance were most amusing. 

They believed that Americans and Indians 
were alike cannibals, ready to prey upon unsus- 
pecting foreigners, and had the wildest notions 
about the buffalo and other animals of the plains, 
while everything was marvellous to them, even 
to the strange ways of American cooking. 

And thus amid hardship and danger, not un- 
mingled with odd and amusing experiences, the 
first brave pioneers of the gold-diggings found 
their way into the land of their desires. 

As will be seen, the increase of population 
was soon felt, and cities and towns sprang up as 
if by magic. Where the search proved success- 
ful the towns became permanent, but often the 



THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 297 



first handfuls of gold would be all that would be 
found, and then the busy population of a thriv- 
ing village would vanish in a single night, and 
be found next far away on the banks of some 
river, or on the slopes of a mountain that the 
white man had never before known. 

And so the eold- seekers flew hither and 
thither as the gold appeared or eluded them, 
and it was not until the whole country had been 
thoroughly explored and the deposits and mines 
definitely mapped out, that the population of 
California lost its Arab character and settled 
down into steady living and permanent homes. 

Beautiful cities then arose, and fine buildings, 
and residences that became*famous all over the 
world. 

San Francisco, whose old name of Yerba 
Buena, "good herb," was lost, and its still older 
one resumed, soon became the metropolis of 
the Pacific, leaving far behind the cities of the 
South American coast that had been founded 
in such magnificence by the Spanish conquerors. 

Beautifully situated on a crescent-shaped 
bay, with the snow-capped mountains in the 



298 THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 

distance, it speedily became the most popular 
resort in the gold regions, and its population in- 
creased by thousands. 

A few years after the discovery of gold, 
California had changed as utterly as it is possi- 
ble for a country to change. Wealth abounded 
everywhere, and the beautiful mansions and 
gardens of the Pacific coast became world re- 
nowned, while, to one who knew of the treas- 
ures that still lay stored in its mountains, it 
seemed that the El Dorado of the old romances 
was found at last, and rivalled in richness the 
mines of Cathay or the famous Gardens of the 
Hesperides. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



THE REBELLION. 



For forty years after the Missouri Compromise, 
slavery was still the great question between the 
North and the South. 

The annexation of Texas, the Mexican War, 
the possession of the Southwestern territories 
and California, and the admission of almost 
every new State, all formed subjects for fierce 
discussions in Congress on slavery. 

The South was so afraid of losing any of its 
power that it demanded more and more every 
year, while the North disputed the right of the 
South to claim so much for itself, and did 
everything possible to keep down Southern in- 
fluence. 

And so, during the years that followed 
the admission of Missouri, so many bitter quar- 
rels arose between the people of the North and 



300 THE REBELLION. 



those of the South that it finally seemed that 
they no longer belonged to one race and one 
country, and they grew to look upon one an- 
other as they would look upon foreigners, 
almost forgetting that North and South had 
alike borne the dangers and glory of the Revolu- 
tion, and that North Carolina and Massachu- 
setts, New York and Virginia, had more than 
once joined hands and fought bravely under the 
stars and stripes, proving to the whole world 
what great things a young and feeble nation 
might do when united in the bonds of brother- 
hood and love. 

There were other reasons than slavery to 
account for the bad feeling that grew up be- 
tween the two regions ; the principal one being 
the different way in which they both looked 
upon the rights of the Republic. 

The North regarded every State, no matter 
how powerful, as only a small part of the na- 
tion, and subject to the laws of the General 
Government ; while the South, on the contrary, 
declared that every State had a right to decide 
for itself in all matters, and that if Congress 




A TRUCK BKTWKKN PICKETS. 



THE REBELLION. 301 



passed any law that might displease the people 
of one State, no matter how beneficial the law 
might be to the nation at large, that State had a 
perfect right to object and leave the Union and 
form a separate government, either alone by it- 
self, or with other States that might sympathize 
with it. 

This was the doctrine of States' rights, 
which the South cherished more dearly than 
anything else in the world, quite forgetting 
that the early days of the Revolution had shown 
the colonies that they possessed no strength 
except in union, and that North and South alike 
had tried in vain to obtain recognition in Europe 
until they joined together and formed one na- 
tion. 

Another cause was the great difference in 
the habits of the two sections. In the North 
every laboring man could vote for or against 
any law which Congress wished to pass, and 
this gave every man the feeling that he was a 
part of the nation, and that its interests were 
his. But in the South the labor was all per- 
formed by slaves, who were so despised by the 



302 THE REBELLION. 



masters that even labor itself came to be looked 
upon as a degrading thing, and any one who 
worked with his hands was considered much 
inferior to the plantation owners, and in fact, 
the poor white class of the South, ignorant and 
incapable of earning an honest living, was 
nearly as degraded as the slaves themselves. 

Thus in the North, where labor had a voice 
in the Government, it was respected and power- 
ful ; in the South, where it was looked upon as a 
sign of inferiority, it was despised and helpless. 
And if slavery had been allowed to spread all 
over the United States, instead of the great 
future that lies before it, our country could only 
have looked to a shameful decay, for the history 
of the world has proven that not by the wealth 
or power of the few does a nation grow to honor 
and greatness, but by the earnest effort of each 
man who claims for himself only that which he 
has earned by his own labor, and who scorns 
to take advantage of the ignorant and help- 
less. 

And then, besides these two reasons, there 
were others that made the North and South 



THE REBELLION. 303 



grow apart. The West had been settled al- 
most entirely by people from the Middle and 
Eastern States, and thus the feeling - of kin- 
ship between the East and the West was very 
strong. All over the Mississippi and Ohio 
Valleys, among the Rocky Mountains, and 
along the Pacific coast, could be found settlers 
whose habits of living and manner of thought 
could be traced to the North Atlantic and Mid- 
dle States. 

All the great railroads and canals ran east 
and west across the country, and thus the com- 
munication between the East and the West was 
easier than between the North and the South, 
and so it happened that the Western settlers 
and Northern people were much better ac- 
quainted with one another than those of the 
North and the South, and their interests were 
more in common. 

And so, after some years, in the North and 
the South a generation grew up that misunder- 
stood each other's feelings and purposes, and 
suspected each other of motives that were far 
from honorable. 



304 THE REBELLION. 



The South looked upon the North as given 
over to trade and money-making, and willing 
to submit to any base usage rather than have 
its commerce interfered with, claiming that no 
honor or chivalry existed anywhere except in 
the South, while the North resented this impu- 
tation and declared that the South was igno- 
rant, and barbarous in its treatment of the 
slaves, and that Southern chivalry meant only, 
in many cases, inhumanity and selfishness. 

For years and years this state of feeling 
lasted, but as long as the President of the 
United States and the chief members of Con- 
gress sympathized with the South, there was 
no serious danger of greater trouble ; but when 
Abraham Lincoln was chosen President in i860, 
the South felt that it could no longer compel 
the General Government to give its entire sup- 
port to slavery, for Lincoln and his party were 
bitterly opposed to the way in which the North 
had been obliged to defer to the wishes of 
Southern slave-holders. 

The great statesmen of the South had de- 
clared that they would break up the Union if 



THE REBELLION. 305 

Mr. Lincoln were elected, and in December, 
i860, they carried this threat out as far as 
possible. Several Southern States, led by- 
South Carolina, set up a government of their 
own, with Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, as 
President, and declared themselves no longer a 
part of the United States. 

The new government styled itself the Con- 
federate States of America, and went into office 
a month before the inauguration of Lincoln, in 
March, 1861. 

Although the South had threatened to leave 
the Union many times, the North never really 
believed that such a thing would happen, and 
so the forming of the new government gave a 
shock to all lovers of the Union, North and 
South. Still the Government of the United 
States only looked on quietly, while the South- 
ern leaders took possession of forts and arsenals 
and war-supplies all over the South, and made 
preparations to defend themselves from any 
army that might be sent against them. 

The North did nothing except talk of recon- 
ciliation, until the Southerners proved that they 



306 THE REBELLION. 



were in earnest by firing - on Fort Sumter. The 
fort was defended by the brave and loyal Major 
Anderson, who refused to surrender, though his 
garrison consisted only of seventy men, while 
the men in the Confederate forts and batteries 
numbered seven thousand. 

For thirty-four hours Fort Sumter was the 
target for all the Confederate guns, and it was 
only when the barracks took fire and the powder 
was almost gone that the gallant defender con- 
sented to a surrender, on the condition that he 
should be allowed to leave with the honors of 
war. 

And so the brave little company, after using 
their last charge of powder in saluting their flag, 
marched out with drums beating and colors 
flying, and the fort was left in possession of the 
enemy. 

Never before, since the United States had 
been a nation, had anything happened so full 
of terrible consequences as the firing on the 
national flag at Fort Sumter. 

The North sprang up, strong and fierce in 
its wrath, to avenge this insult to the flag, and 



THE REBELLION. 307 



bring the Southern States back to their obedi- 
ence. Two days after the fall of Fort Sumter 
three hundred thousand volunteers had offered 
their services to the National Government; five 
days afterward, April 19, 1861, a Massachusetts 
regiment, passing through Baltimore on its way 
to Washington, was fired into, and several men 
killed. War had besnin, and as on the anniver- 
sary of the battle of Lexington, the first blood 
was shed in that terrible conflict in which broth- 
er fought against brother, and friend against 
friend, alike forgetting the common ties that 
should have bound them so closely together. 

At first both sides were sure of easy victory ; 
the North only looked upon the rebellion of the 
Southern States as a big riot, to be quelled by 
the presence of United States troops, while the 
South thought that the North would consent to 
the new arrangement rather than have her trade 
ruined by war. 

But the battle of Bull Run, fought on July 
2 1 st, showed to the nation the real character of 
the struggle. In this battle the Union troops 
were defeated, and retreated in a panic to 



308 THE REBELLION. 



Washington City, and then for the first time 
the North realized that it had to fight against 
an enemy well prepared for battle, and that the 
contest would be long and severe. 

Besides the defeat at Bull Run, the United 
States had other discouragements during the 
early days of the war. England and France 
both sympathized with the South, and vessels 
for the use of the Confederate navy were built 
in English ship-yards, showing to the whole 
world that Great Britain entertained small 
friendship for the United States ; and thus at 
the very beginning of the struggle the Union 
had to contend with foes at home and enemies 
abroad. 

In the North and the South the war feeling 
was fierce and decided from the beginning, but 
in the border States lying between the two sec- 
tions there were friends both of the Union and 
the Confederacy. Virginia, west of the Alle- 
ghany Mountains, sympathized with the North ; 
Kentucky wished to remain neutral ; and Mis- 
souri was evenly divided. 

And thus the last two States were claimed 



THE REBELLION. 309 



by both North and South, and suffered more 
from the effects of war than any other part of 
the country. 

The Union and Confederate armies both 
considered they had a perfect right to camp on 
this disputed territory and scour the country 
for provisions, and the towns and villages and 
farms were never free from hostile and lawless 
soldiery, who pillaged houses, ravaged grain 
fields, stole horses and cattle, and burned barns 
and woodland, under the impression that they 
were serving their cause nobly by thus devastat- 
ing a region that might at any moment be oc- 
cupied by the enemy. i/ 

From the beginning of the war the Union 
Army had three objects to accomplish. To get 
possession of the Mississippi River down to 
New Orleans, and thus divide the Confederacy 
into two parts ; to command the Southern ports, 
and thus prevent Confederate vessels from tak- 
ing any part in the war ; and to capture Rich- 
mond, the capital of the South. 

Early in the second year of the war, the first 
of these projects was undertaken. 



3IO THE REBELLION. 



General Grant moved from Cairo with his 
army, and with the help of the Union fleet, took 
two very important forts on the Tennessee and 
Cumberland Rivers, and pressed on to Pitts- 
burg Landing. 

Here was fought one of the most terrible 
battles of the war. The action took place on a 
plateau about two miles from the landing, near 
a log meeting-house which was known as 
Shiloh Church, and from this circumstance the 
eneaeement has been known as the battle of 
Shiloh. 

In the early dawn, on Sunday, April 6, 1862, 
the Confederates rushed out of the woods in 
regular battle-line, and began a fierce attack on 
the Union troops ; and for twelve long hours the 
air was filled with smoke and flash of guns, and 
roar of cannon, shouts of triumph, and groans 
of dying men. The Union soldiers fought 
bravely, but the Southern army seemed inspired 
with the sure hope of victory, and step by step 
the national troops fell back toward the river. 
When the very brink was reached, and the dis- 
heartened troops stood on the edge of the bluff 



THE REBELLION. 7,11 



overlooking the Tennessee, General Grant 
massed his men together and prepared for a last 
struggle. Between the two armies lay a deep 
ravine, and as the Confederates dashed down 
one side and began the ascent of the other, they 
were met by a fire so terrible, that advance 
seemed impossible. Again and again the at- 
tempt was made, and Southern dash and daring 
might have won at last, had not reinforcements 
for Grant come on the field. 

The Confederates fell back for the time, hav- 
ing captured three thousand prisoners and im- 
mense stores, together with the Union camps 
and thirty flags. They rejoiced over their ap- 
parent success and looked for victory the next 
day. In their great elation they became almost 
lawless, and as the night came on dark and 
stormy, bivouacked in small companies here 
and there, just as the darkness overtook them. 

The next morning the Union army advanced 
in a cold drizzling rain, and step by step re- 
gained the ground that had been lost the day 
before. All along the lines the battle raged 
fiercely, and as the Southern forces were pressed 



312 THE REBELLION. 



farther and farther back into the woods, and 
driven from tree to tree, they gave up all hope 
of victory, and were ordered to retreat. 

The victory was with the Union army ; the 
loss was terrible, both sides losing about ten 
thousand men. 

The effects of this battle were most impor- 
tant. Memphis was secured a short time after- 
ward, and Kentucky and Western Tennessee 
were entirely under the Union flag. 

In the latter part of the same month, Ad- 
miral Farragut captured New Orleans, thus 
leaving Vicksburg, the only important fort on 
the Mississippi, in possession of the enemy. 

A year and three months after the battle of 
Shiloh, Vicksburg also surrendered to General 
Grant, and thus one great object of the North 
was accomplished. The Mississippi was in pos- 
session of the United States, down to the Gulf, 
and the Confederacy was cut into two parts. 

On the sea and coast the struggle was as 
fierce as in the West, and off the coast of Vir- 
ginia the Unionists gained a victory even more 
brilliant and important than that of Farragut. 



THE REBELLION. 313 



On March 8, 1862, the Confederate iron- 
clad Merrimac steamed into Hampton Roads and 
attacked the Union squadron. The wooden 
frigates tried in vain to make a stand against 

o o 

this formidable enemy. Their balls fell harm- 
lessly on her iron and steel covering, and the 
Merrimac had it all her own way. 

The United States frig-ate Cumberland made 
a brave defence and finally sank without strik- 
ing her flag, carrying down all on board. 

The Congress was burned to the water's 
edge, and the Minnesota was only saved by 
being- run aground. 

At sunset the Merrimac returned to Nor- 
folk, and the Confederates retired to rest sure 
of easy victory on the morrow. And victory 
now would mean so much. For if the Merrimac 
kept on her work of destruction, not a Union 
ship would escape. The whole coast would be 
in the hands of the enemy, and every harbor on 
the Atlantic serve as a holding place for South- 
ern fleets. 

But the Unionists had a hope too, that 
night, notwithstanding the discouragements of 



314 THE REBELLION. 



the day, and they also waited for the dawn, with 
hearts full of courage, for at nine o'clock a little 
insignificant vessel steamed into harbor bearing 
with it some promise of success. It was the 
Monitor, a new kind of war-vessel, built of iron 
and almost impregnable against attack. 

The Merrimac returned in the morning and 
at once began an attack on the Minnesota, but 
the Monitor promptly appeared on the scene, 
and the Confederate vessel found herself obliged 
to act on the defensive. For two hours the two 
ships poured their heaviest balls into each other, 
but without the slightest effect. 

Five times the Merrimac tried to run down 
the Monitor with her iron beak, but each time 
the little vessel glided out unharmed. At last 
the Monitor sent a shell crashing through the 
port-hole of the Merrimac, injuring several of the 
crew, and after a few more useless shots the 
Merrimac steamed off in despair. The victory 
remained with the Union fleet and was of the 
greatest importance, for if the Merrimac had 
been successful there is no doubt that the whole 
Atlantic coast would have fallen an easy prey to 



THE REBELLION. 315 



Confederate ships. Foreign nations would have 
given their support to so brave a cause, and 
supplies and help would have reached the Con- 
federacy from European nations that were now 
too timid to offer help to either side. 

But the retreat of the Merrimac left things 
as they were, with the Atlantic harbors in pos- 
session of the Unionists, and the Southern navy 
only of small consideration in the carrying on of 
the war, for new monitors were speedily built, 
and the United States navy was soon in a posi- 
tion to defend the North from any attack no 
matter how severe. 

But although the Union forces were victori- 
ous in the West and on the coast, the advance 
on Richmond was checked again and again by 
the bravery and skill of the Southern leaders. 
And indeed, General Robert Lee, who com- 
manded the Southern army, not only managed 
to keep the Unionists away from Richmond, but 
made one or two moves against Washington 
City, and by his superior generalship kept the 
Union army too busy in defending the North to 
make further advance on the South possible. 



316 THE REBELLION. 



There were many terrible battles fought at 
this time, and the loss in killed and wounded 
and the sufferings of the troops were most dis- 
heartening. 

But the North never lost faith in the justice 
of the cause, and the South could not yet lose 
faith in its courage and military skill, and so the 
war went on. 

Early in the year 1863, President Lincoln 
issued the Emancipation Proclamation giving 
freedom to the slaves, and this infuriated the 
South more than ever. 

Throughout the whole war the feeling of the 
South against the North was one of bitter and 
unreasonable hatred. And this was shown in 
every way possible. The Southern prisons 
were the most wretched places imaginable, and 
the prisoners were treated with a cruelty re- 
volting to civilized people. The well were 
starved, and the sick neglected and left to die of 
their wounds, while the jailers tried, by every 
means in their power, to render the fate of the 
unhappy captives unbearable. 

It is true that the Southern soldier often had 



THE REBELLION. 317 



to be satisfied with food as poor as that which 
was given to the prisoners, but the sufferings 
of prison life were increased threefold by the 
inhumanity of the prison keepers, who by years 
and years of familiarity with the most degrad- 
ing consequences of slavery ; found it very easy 
to abuse the whites whom the fortunes of war 
had made helpless in their hands. 

Far otherwise was it in the prisons of the 
North where the captured rebels were treated 
with a kindness that often astonished them, and 
gave them new views of the men who were 
risking life and wealth for the sake of the Right, 
and who instead of hating the brothers they 
bore arms against, hated only their mistaken 
sense of duty, and the inhumanity which could 
wish to fasten the chains of the wretched slave 
more firmly. 

And so for years the North and the South 
gave their best to the war, while homes were 
made desolate, and industries ceased, and fertile 
lands were ravaged by hands that should have 
been employed in sowing grain and reaping 
fruitful harvests. 



3l8 THE REBELLION. 



The South suffered far more than the North 
in this sad conflict, for the great battle-fields of 
the war lay almost entirely south of the Poto- 
mac. 

And yet all this might have been different, 
and the North as well as the South laid deso- 
late, had not the great battle of Gettysburg, 
fought in the third year of the war, been a 
Northern victory. 

General Lee, encouraged by some brilliant 
victories over the Union troops, determined to 
carry the war into the North. 

With the flower of the Southern army he 
crossed the Potomac and advanced into Penn- 
sylvania, determined to enter Philadelphia, and 
perhaps New York. 

The Union army was commanded by Gen- 
eral Meade, whose forces met Lee's advance 
near Gettysburg on July i, 1863. The battle 
at once began and turned in favor of the Con- 
federates, the National troops being forced 
back and many of them made prisoners in the 
streets of the village. 

By the afternoon of the next day both 



THE REBELLION. 319 



armies were in splendid order for battle. Not 
a man in the ranks but knew that here would 
be fought the greatest battle of the war, and as 
the troops moved into position they felt that in 
a few hours perhaps the fate of the country- 
would be decided. 

The Union forces lay upon a ridge, sheltered 
by rock ledges and stone walls ; the Confeder- 
ates occupied another ridge at some distance 
opposite, and between the two armies lay a 
valley rich with fields of grain and pasture, 
where groups of cattle were quietly feeding. 

But although the fighting was fierce and 
terrible, the second day came to a close with 
the battle still unfinished, though many thou- 
sand men lay dead on the field ; and at ten o'clock 
at night when the troops ceased firing they 
could only look forward to another day of hor- 
ror and bloodshed. 

The hours of darkness were spent in making 
arrangements to renew the battle, but when the 
morning came both generals were loath to began 
the conflict, for each one felt that this would be 
the last and decisive day of the fight. 



320 THE REBELLION. 



At one o'clock Lee's guns opened fire, and 
two hours afterward the Confederates swept out 
of the woods in double battle-line and advanced 
toward the Union forces. They came on in 
splendid order and with magnificent bravery, 
well knowing that advance up that guarded 
slope meant certain death to almost all. 

Gun after gun sent its terrible charges of 
shot and shell among them, and rank after 
rank was mown down, but in spite of broken 
lines and raking fire they pushed forward and 
planted their flags on the breastworks. 

But bravery and endurance were of no avail 
under the fire that poured out from the Union 
guns. They were besieged on every side, and 
after fighting hand to hand and inflicting deadly 
loss on the National lines, they fled from the field. 

Gettysburg was won by the Union, but 
forty thousand men lay dead on the field, and 
the rejoicing that went up from the North when 
it became known that Lee had retreated, was 
mingled with the tears of thousands whose 
bravest and best had gone down in those awful 
charges. 



THE REBELLION. 321 



The defeat of Lee decided the fate of the 
war. Already the fall of Vicksburg had given 
the Mississippi into the hands of the Union, 
and all thought of a Northern invasion was 
from this time given up. 

Henceforth the South tried only to defend 
itself from the Northern armies, and gave up 
offensive warfare. 

In the midst of these terrible times a new 
State was admitted into the Union. Western 
Virginia had from the first shown entire sym- 
pathy with the North, and now, with a faith in 
the triumph of the Right that was both brave 
and beautiful, the little loyal State claimed her 
kinship with the Union, glad to bear her por- 
tion of the struggle. 

The next year, 1864, General Grant, who 
had been made commander of all the Union 
forces, decided to destroy the two great armies 
of the South that were commanded by Lee and 
Johnston. 

General Sherman was to march into Geor- 
gia and attack General Johnston, while at the 
same time Grant would move on Lee's army in 



322 THE REBELLION. 



Virginia. The first of these plans was carried 
out with splendid effect by Sherman. He drove 
Johnston from place to place until Atlanta was 
reached, when the Southern general was suc- 
ceeded in command by General Hood, who in 
three attacks tried to repulse the Union forces, 
but without success. For months the campaign 
continued, the soldiers marching and fighting 
day and night, while the country was ravaged. 

The South had depended upon the manu- 
factories of Georgia for its supply of clothing, 
wagons, harness, powder, balls, and cannon, 
and while Sherman occupied the State, it was 
impossible for the supplies to be regular or 
sure. In order, therefore, to save Georgia, 
Hood took his army into Tennessee, thinking 
Sherman would follow. But in this he was mis- 
taken; Sherman only continued his "march to 
the sea," reaching the city of Savannah late in 
December. 

By this movement Sherman had given a 
deadly blow to the Confederacy, and as Hood's 
army was almost entirely destroyed in Tennes- 
see by the Union troops under General Thomas, 



THE REBELLION. 323 



there remained only the army under General 
Lee to sustain the Rebellion. 

Almost at the same time that Sherman be- 
gan his advance through Georgia, Grant started 
on his march to Richmond. 

The battle of the Wilderness, one of the 
most terrible of the war, was fought soon after, 
Grant losing twenty thousand men and Lee 
ten thousand. The attack was made while the 
Union forces were making their way through 
the wilderness, and for two days, amid the 
gloom of trees and clouds of smoke, the fight 
went on, neither side claiming victory and both 
scorning defeat, until, worn out with exhaustion, 
the two armies sank behind their entrench- 
ments, and on the third day gave over the 
battle. 

It was supposed by the Confederates that 
Grant would now turn back, but he had started 
for Richmond, and had no intention of retreating 
until the Union flag was flying over the Con- 
federate capital. 

Some terrible battles followed, and the Un- 
ion loss was fearful ; but the army still went on, 



324 THE REBELLION. 



marching from post to post until April, 1865, 
when the army of the Potomac victoriously n- 
tered Richmond. The city had been evacuated 
the day before amid the direst confusion. As 
soon as it became known that Grant's army was 
ready to enter the capital, the streets were filled 
with an excited mass, whose only thought was 
to get outside the city limits. Men, women, 
and children hurried through the streets all 
night, fabulous prices being offered for the hum- 
blest conveyances. Those who could not find 
means of riding walked away, followed by ne- 
groes carrying trunks, bundles, bandboxes, and 
every imaginable kind of luggage. The wild- 
est scenes followed. Warehouses were burned, 
dwellings plundered, and drunken rioters went 
reeling through the streets. 

When the Union army entered the city the 
next morning, it presented an appearance equal 
to a town given over to the ravages of the bit- 
terest enemy. The beautiful streets, houses, 
and parks were in many cases quite ruined, 
while the population that remained looked with 
terrified eyes upon the victorious army, expect- 



THE REBELLION. 325 



ing to find the Yankee soldiers the monsters 
they had been taught to believe them. 

Order was restored as soon as possible, 
prison doors were opened, and the loyal hearts 
in Richmond nee more were gladdened as the 
old flag floated out on the breeze, while the 
Army of the Potomac victorious, and cheered by 
the thought that the war would soon be over, 
was met by a welcome from the few Unionists 
in the city that well repaid them for their weary 
months of toil. 

But although Richmond was taken, the war 
could not end while Lee still commanded an 
army. The hopes of the Confederacy had 
rested for many a long day upon this brave 
and skilful leader, and it now became Grant's 
object to force him to surrender. 

But the Confederates held out with all their 
old courage, and Lee made desperate efforts to 
reach the mountains of Tennessee or Kentucky. 
Grant followed him with a determination that 
knew no rest. By day and night the Southern 
troops were hurried here and there by the Union- 
ists, who seemed to spring up from all sides. 



326 THE REBELLION. 



Still Lee did not give up, although his army- 
was in a most wretched condition, and had to 
march almost constantly, while food was scarce 
and sometimes impossible to obtain. 

At last General Sheridan, commanding a 
division of the Union army, planted his troops 
directly across Lee's path, and a battle seemed 
inevitable. 

The National troops were flushed with vic- 
tory and certain of success ; the Confederates 
were wearied with heavy marches, disheartened 
by discouragement and suffering, and could only 
look forward to defeat, but they waited Lee's 
orders to advance upon the densely-drawn bat- 
tle-lines of the Army of the Potomac with all 
their old bravery, and Lee's surrender would 
have been preceded by one of the bloodiest 
battles of the war, had not the stout-hearted 
Southern general seen the uselessness of such a 
sacrifice of men, and consented to a surrender. 

In the afternoon of Palm Sunday, April 9, 
1865, the two great generals met in a little par- 
lor near Appomatox Court House and talked 
over the terms of surrender. General Grant 



THE REBELLION. 327 



only demanded that the Confederates should 
lay down their arms and promise not to fight 
against the United States Government. 

To this Lee consented, and the army of Vir- 
ginia, the pride and hope of the Confederacy, 
was immediately disbanded. The soldiers re- 
turned to their homes, taking with them their 
horses, which General Grant allowed them to 
keep in case they might need them on their 
farms ; and with this hint of coming peace the 
great Rebellion came to an end. 

To the North, Lee's surrender seemed to 
prove that the Right had prevailed ; to the South, 
still loyal to the lost cause, it seemed but a sign 
of injustice and tyranny. But North and South 
were alike glad that the fearful struggle was over. 

The war had cost the country a million 
brave and useful lives and hundreds of millions 
of dollars. But it had saved the Union, and 
given freedom to the slave. Henceforth, North 
and South, East and West, could mean nothing 
but a part of the great Republic, and freedom 
meant to black and white alike the rights which 
belong to all humanity. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE SOUTH AFTER THE WAR. 

The war was over and the soldiers of both ar- 
mies returned to their homes and began again 
to lead the lives of peaceful citizens. 

In the North, mills and factories, and indus- 
tries of all kinds soon occupied the attention of 
the men who a few months before had been 
fighting for their country on the battle-fields of 
the South, and in the new prosperity which 
flowed in, the great debt of the war began to 
look less hopeless. 

But in the South all was different. All 
throughout its length and breadth the ruined 
homes, the devastated plantations, the plun- 
dered cities and the thousands of homeless men 
and women proved what a terrible curse the 
war had been. 

Many of the once wealthy plantation owners 



THE SOUTH AFTER THE WAR. 329 

were as poor as the humblest slaves, and women 
and children who had been accustomed to the 
greatest luxuries before the war were now 
eager to obtain the coarse food and clothing 
which their changed circumstances allowed. 

So great was the distress in the South that 
for a time it almost seemed that even the ne- 
groes had been little benefited by the war. 

The land was useless without laborers to till 
it, and laborers could not be had as there was 
no money to pay them. 

Railroads were destroyed; commerce was 
dead plantations ; had lain useless for four years. 
The South had put all its hope, all its wealth, 
and the lives of its greatest and best men in the 
war, and had lost everything. There was noth- 
ing now to do but rebuild the cities, plant anew 
the fields of cotton and sugar, and raise once 
more the homes that had fallen into heaps of 
ruins. 

With a bravery as touching as that shown 
by four years of hopeless struggle, the South 
set herself to the work, so difficult at first that 
it almost seemed like the efforts of a strange 



330 THE SOUTH AFTER THE WAR. 

people to build up and occupy a waste, desolate, 
and foreign land. 

The General Government did all in its 
power to help the Southern States in their hour 
of need. 

The Freedmen's Bureau was established by- 
Congress, having for its object the care and 
protection of the liberated slaves and destitute 
whites. By this means the negroes were en- 
abled to support themselves, and in some cases 
to buy a little land and till it, the officers of the 
Government taking care that the titles were cor- 
rect, and that the seller did not take any advan- 
tage of the ignorant purchaser. 

The Civil Rights Bill was also passed, giv- 
ing to the negro the rights of citizenship ; or, in 
other words, admitting his right to defend his 
property, to appear in court as a witness, to 
hold office, and in every way be considered as 
a citizen of the United States. 

This bill caused very bitter feeling through- 
out the South, where the negro had so long 
been considered as no more than a dog or 
horse ; but it was the only way in which to settle, 



THE SOUTH AFTER THE WAR. 33 1 

once for all, that the slave was a man, with all 
the rights and privileges of other men, and time 
has shown that it was the wisest thing- that 
could have been done. 

All the States that had seceded from the 
Union were left at the end of the war with no 
voice in the National Government. Congress 

o 

could pass any law without their consent, and 
the whole South lay at the mercy of the 
Northern representatives. 

Since the rebellion was crushed, and all 
hope of the Confederacy over, it was decided 
that the wisest and justest thing to do would be 
to acknowledge the Southern States once more 
as a part of the Union. 

Accordingly a bill was passed allowing the 
Southern States to come back into the Union, 
on their agreement to abide by the Constitution, 
accepting all the changes that had been made in 
it since the beginning of the war. One by one 
the States agreed to this, and a few years after 
the war had ended, Senators from all the South- 
ern States again took their seats in Congress. 

After this the work of building up the South 



332 THE SOUTH AFTER THE WAR. 

went on rapidly. Politics and political quarrels 
were no longer of chief importance, for the great 
question of slavery was forever laid aside, and 
the South well knew that only by the closest 
industry could it ever again equal the North in 
wealth and power. 

Sooner than might have been expected, 
white and black alike fell into the new order of 
things, and nourishing plantations, busy villages, 
and cities rich in trade once more appeared in the 
States that had lately known all the horrors of 
war. 

Year by year kindlier feeling grew up be- 
tween the two great parts of the Union that had 
once faced each other in deadly battle, and 
slowly all hatred and distrust faded away. 
North and South joined hands in gathering to- 
gether the remains of the heroes who had fallen 
in the struggle, and in the great cemeteries, 
scattered all over the South, the soldiers of both 
armies sleep peacefully side by side, their graves 
tended by loving hands and hearts that have 
long ceased to question whether he who lies 
below was friend or foe. 



I- fcB 2-1949 



THE SOUTH AFTER THE WAR. 333 

During the years that have followed the 
war, the negroes have proven that, as a race, 
they are worthy of the fearful price that won 
them their freedom. 

Schools have been established for them all 
over the South, and their industry, intelligence, 
and gratitude to their teachers are the best 
proofs that they appreciate the better heritage 
that has come to them. 

To them, and to all, those dark days of 
servitude are only a memory. 

The North looks with pride upon a land 
purified of the greatest curse that can befall a 
nation, and the South, with clearer vision, has 
long since acknowledged that the change was 
good, and that the new order is more worthy of 
her greatness than the old could ever have been. 

And as year by year over the graves in the 
national cemeteries bloom the white flowers of 
peace, so in the hearts all over the Union is 
growing up that faith in the brotherhood of 
man which alone can make liberty and equality 
mean more than a name, and give to a nation 
true and lasting greatness. 






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